All Because Of A Flower
by PhantomTigre
Summary: A new type of flower that leads to a long adventure! Rosethorn and Crane Romance. Please RR. I wrote this with my sister Snowbear several years ago.
1. Discoveries

Rosethorn kneeled in the dirt, weeding a patch of bright blue flowers hoping to get this patch done before the sun set. They had roundish shaped petals, in Lark's opinion, the prettiest in the garden. She was about to pull out a weed when she saw one of the flowers was a darker blue, with red thorns up and down its stem. Not knowing what it was at first glance, she dug it and brought into the workshop to put it into a pot. 

She studied it, wracked her brains, and studied some more but was not able to figure out what it was. The thought of asking Crane what it was occurred to her, but she shoved it away quickly with a smile. Rosethorn was sure she had just momentarily forgotten what it was. 

Finally she opened one of the lower cupboards and pulled out a dust covered, old, and slightly musty smelling book. It was entitled, Flowers of the World. She flicked through the pages, spreading dust everywhere, looking for a flower that looked like, or was similar to, the one that was sitting on the desk in front of her, emitting happiness to be noticed and looked after. 

"Can't find the name of a certain flower, Rosethorn?" Crane's voice drifted in from the doorway. 

He stepped in and peered at the flower. 

"What are you doing here?" Rosethorn demanded, shutting the book quickly and putting her arm over the title. 

"I never thought the day would come when I would find you not knowing the name of a flower," he said smugly.

"Just so you know, I have had to look up many flowers over the past years," Rosethorn admitted, unashamed, "I'm just very secretive."

"Well, you don't seem to be very secretive now," he said, leaning against the doorway, his brown eyes resting on the unknown blue flower. The flower seemed to have pride at not being known.

"I was, until you came in," Rosethorn retorted and opened up the book again, making very sure Crane could see it was called Flowers of the World.

"Well, if you must know, I came here to ask you what that," he pointed at the flower, "is called." 

The flower didn't seem happy at being called "that". Rosethorn smiled at it and it perked up again. 

Rosethorn turned and looked at him, her chin resting on one hand, smirking, "_You _came to ask _me _about a flower?"

"Yes, I did," Crane replied sharply, "and if neither of us know what it is, I suggest we get researching."

"Alright then," Rosethorn said and started flipping through pages of the book. Crane stood in the doorway a little longer, waiting to see if there was anything else she had to say, before leaving. 

                                                ***

Rosethorn opened her eyes and rubbed her cheek where the open book had left a large red mark. Briar was shaking her shoulders.

"Wake up Rosethorn. Lark has made oatmeal for breakfast," he said.

"Does she ever make anything else?" She stood up, brushing her short chestnut hair out of her face, and followed Briar out of her workroom.

She looked around outside and was surprised to see the blue flower with red thorns popping up all over the place.

She blinked her eyes, but the flowers were still there. She rubbed her eyes and continued into the kitchen where Lark was serving oatmeal, it was maple flavored this time, and it seemed, to Rosethorn, especially gooey. 

"How late were you up?" Lark asked.

"I don't know," she said and started eating her oatmeal.

Briar had disappeared into his room and just then reappeared holding his Shakkan.

"Um, Rosethorn, do you know what this flower is? I found it this morning when I woke up. My Shakkan was complaining a bit, I think they've grown fond of each other though. It's a happy little plant," he said and tickled the petals. 

The flower happily opened its petals more. The Shakkan did seem to like it as well.

"Another one! They're popping up all over the place," Rosethorn glared at the flower that you could almost hear whimper. A hummingbird fluttered in through the open window, saw the people, and then quickly flew out.

"Oh, a hummingbird, did you see that?" Sandry said excitedly.

Rosethorn finished her oatmeal and proceeded back to her workshop when Crane burst in. 

"They're everywhere!" He said frustrated, the quickly straightened up and glared at everyone. He walked into Rosethorn's workroom.

Briar cleared his place and quickly followed.

"We have to find its pollinator, where its come from, whether or not it's a combination of various other breeds of plants, and if it is, what they are. It would also be nice to find its uses. _If_ it has any," Crane said.

"So you're sure it's a new breed?" Rosethorn asked peering at the little plant.

"You and I _are_ among the strongest plant mages in the world Rosethorn. If we cannot find out its breed, then do really expect someone else to?" He asked her.

"You assume to much. Did the idea occur to you that this plant may be from a place we don't know of and maybe the people there know what it is? I suggest we try to find where it came from. I'll ask Tris for the most recent wind directions. If it does not come from some unknown place, then we may look at the idea that it is a new breed," Rosethorn told him, then she added, "If it is a new breed, I get to name it."

Crane glared, "For your information, we both discovered it about the same time, I'm afraid we shall have to name it together."

Briar spoke up, "So, what should I do today?"

                                                ***

"It says here long flowers, like this one, usually have HUMMINGBIRDS as pollinators!" Rosethorn insisted, pointed at a page in a book and glaring stubbornly at Crane. 

"Yes, yes, but as you can see, this flower also has blue coloration, indicating that BEES should pollinate it!" Crane demanded, slamming his hand on the book. 

Rosethorn grabbed the flower and shoved it in Crane's face, "smell! If you notice, it does NOT smell very strongly!"

Crane looked quite surprised for a second, then he took the flower, his eyes meeting hers, "Its not sturdy enough for a bird to land on, if you notice." Rosethorn had still not let go of the flower. 

As she stared up at him she was very aware of his fingers brushing against hers, she could feel her heart pounding and she whispered lamely purely for the sake of needing something to say to break the silence, "but it doesn't have a strong smell…" her voice trailed off.

Suddenly Crane leaned over and kissed her, his lips pressing gently against hers for a second, then he turned away, embarrassed. There was an awkward silence. 

Briar walked into Crane's workroom, he stopped, aware of the silence and that for some reason Rosethorn and Crane weren't arguing and seemed quite busy in there own work. 

Crane had the oddest expression on his face, like he was trying to look noble, but not succeeded. Briar quickly placed the supplies Rosethorn had asked for and then left, feeling confused. 

                                                ***

Rosethorn was leaning over a map of the world, which was spread out on the table in Discipline Cottage. Tris was drawing on the map, with a blue marker, the latest wind currents. 

Once Tris was finished she triumphantly put the lid back on the marker and explained it the Rosethorn, who took it over to Briar. They studied the currents that were coming into Summersea, and where they were coming from, to find out where the flower might have come from. 

"Alright Briar, the winds are coming into Summersea from three places, Duires Tu, Austria, and Kodaikanal. You're job is to find information on the flowers in Austria, and I'll research the other two," Rosethorn told the boy.

She scanned the bookshelves. "Here's the book you'll use." She placed a book on the table in front of Briar that was at least four inches thick. 

"Oh, and thank-you Tris for the map," she pulled down a few more books for the two places she would be researching.

Briar stared at the huge book and slowly opened it and started flipping through the pages looking for the section on Austria's flowers.

"There is a table of contents, just so you know Briar," Rosethorn told the boy scanning the page in one of the other books she had taken off the bookshelf.

After a few minutes Briar spoke again, "Uh, Rosethorn, there ain't nothing in here on flowers of Austria."

Rosethorn glanced at the cover of his book, it read, Austria's Government.

"Oh, well I saw the Austria and assumed…" She stood up and started looking at the bookshelves again. She then pulled down a book 5 ½ inches thick. It was titled The Many Flower Varieties in Austria. 

Briar took it from her and staggered slightly under the weight, raising his eyebrows. He set it down on the floor grumbling, "I hate books."

Tris, hearing Briar say that, told him brightly, "I _love_ to read! I'll do it for you!"

"No, that's all right Tris, but I need Briar to do this," Rosethorn told Tris, Briar had looked happy for a moment slouched down and opened the book to its Table Of Contents, which by itself was ten pages.

Sandry looked at Briar pittying. She was doing some embroidery. This time it was of a little dog panting. Above it was the words Little Bear. Tris glanced at it from her book that she was reading, "Aww, you made Little Bear. That is really good!"

Sandry smiled with the praise, "Thanks, earlier today I saw him sit in this pose, he looked cute so I thought I'd embroider it."

There was a thud as Briar opened to page 2591. 


	2. Into the Woods

Disclaimer: Nothing in this story belongs to us. Except for the name of the flowers, and the idea of the story, but none of the characters belong to us. Not even the donkey, or the flowers, but flowers aren't really characters, they're just flowers, but you get the idea…

It was early morning. The sun's first rays were just starting to peek over the red horizon, hinting that the day would be a hot one.

Rosethorn was fast asleep in her bed, when Crane burst in and yanked her out of bed.

"Up! I've found a large patch of these flowers growing in the forest. I believe if we observe them for a long enough time we will see what is pollinating them," he briskly left the room closing the door behind him.

Rosethorn sleepily dressed in casual clothes, which would be easy to move around in, breeches and a tunic.

She opened the door to her room and sleepily blinked. Briar was standing there, looking wide-awake and dressed.

"May I come?" he asked.

"No," she said firmly.

"I gotta come, please!" he begged.

"No, You _have_ to come," she corrected him.

"So I can?" He asked looked happy.

"No!" she started to leave.

"Please…" he said following her.

She walked outside where Crane was waiting. He saw Rosethorn and looked away, then noticed Briar.

He took one look at the boy and said, "We don't need a him tagging along."

"He's coming," she told Crane, and then to Briar, "You can come, but be good."

"Aren't I always?" he asked putting an innocent face on.

Rosethorn chose to ignore this comment and followed Crane into the forest. He apparently knew where he was going and walked quickly with out hesitation. 

After walking for several minutes the wood thinned out and the blue flowers with red thorns were everywhere.

Crane sat down and took off the bag he had been carrying. In it he had breakfast, lunch, and dinner as well as a few notebooks and pencils. There was also a book on flower pollinators.

Rosethorn sat down as well and motioned for Briar to do the same. Rosethorn looked at the food, "So I take it you're planning on being here all day?"

He gave a small nod, not looking at her, but instead flipping open a notebook, he began to sketch one of the flowers. 

"Well, now that we are mostly sure it's a new flower, then who gets name it?" Briar said looking at them both.

Rosethorn glanced at Crane, who glanced back. 

"I do," Rosethorn said turning away.

Crane narrowed his eyes, "Since when?"

"Since, well, we both discovered it, so I guess we both do…" she started flipping through the bird pollinator's book. 

Briar dropped the subject; apparently neither of them were in the mood for discussion. The sun peeked above the horizon and the forest was bathed in light. Briar rolled over onto his stomach and prepared himself for a long day.

Rosethorn mumbled something about her garden needing weeding that day.

After sitting and staring for a few hours Briar stood up and announced, "I'm gonna go for a little walk."

"All right, don't go to far, and don't disturb the flowers," Rosethorn told him.

Crane said nothing and continued watching the flowers. 

Briar walked back into the denser forest and looked around. He lifted his head and smelled the fresh scents of the forest. There were a few pines, the kind that had tall trunks before the pine started. Noting the sycamores he started looking for a stream. He began walking in the direction where it looked like there were more sycamores. He nearly fell into the stream, it was low down so he hadn't seen it. The bank was steep and he slipped down it dirtying his pants. He didn't really care, but Rosethorn would. He jumped onto a rock and made his way across the little creek, getting his pants wet as well. 

The other side was very thickly wooded and he decided he would stay on the other side of the creek. As he was standing on a rock in the middle of the river he noticed a bridge crossing the creek a little ways up the river. He hurried back to the side he was originally on, and followed the creek upstream to the bridge. 

It was a nicely made stone bridge. The road crossing it was dirt. He didn't recall there ever being a road going through this forest. He began walking along the road, when he saw three characters walking along the road. One was a rather large chubby man. The second was a small, pretty woman. The third appeared to be, a small dog or pony. He hurried back into the forest not wanting to be seen. 

He retraced his steps back to Rosethorn and Crane. They were both sitting there, quietly watching the flowers. Something seemed wrong. He sat down next to Rosethorn. He took a roll from the pile of food and began eating it. 

He then realized, Crane and Rosethorn weren't arguing, let alone talking. That was strange, the last time he'd been working with them both, they'd been at each other's necks the whole time.

Suddenly Rosethorn glanced up, "You hear that?"

Crane looked up as well, "I hear nothing," he said quietly.

Briar strained his ears; he could faintly pick out the sound of hoof beats. The were short beats, as if the horse was very small.

Just then, a donkey burst into the clearing. He looked quite terrified. He looked around at the flowers, muttering words. Briar crawled closer to make out the words. The donkey was saying, "Blue flowers, red thorns. Blue flowers, red thorns. This would be so much easier if I wasn't color blind!"

The donkey grabbed on of the flowers and ran off. Briar turned around to look at Crane and Rosethorn. They were both looking at the spot where the donkey had been in amazement.

"Well," Rosethorn said.

"Now we know what animal is pollinating the flowers," Crane stated simply.

"Donkeys don't pollinate flowers!" Rosethorn snorted. Briar said nothing and just watched.

"I was attempting to make a," he paused, "joke."

"This is too good!" Briar said happily.

Crane and Rosethorn glared at him.

"What?" he said. Rosethorn was really acting differently this morning. He looked away and paid attention to eating his roll.

"Actually, that's not a bad idea," Crane took out a sandwich and began eating it. 

Rosethorn also took a sandwich to eat. For a few minutes the only sound was of chewing. Briar figured neither Crane nor Rosethorn wanted him to go telling people that Crane had attempted a joke. 

Crane suddenly dropped his sandwich, "A butterfly!"

He quickly crawled closer, "You see, the pollinator is not a bird!"

"Just you wait, it hasn't landed on the flowers yet!" Rosethorn said watching the butterfly closely.

Briar relaxed. Now they were starting to act like they were supposed.

"It will! It will! Look it's landing!" Crane said with anticipation. Then suddenly a cat leaped up and grabbed the butterfly in its mouth and trotted off.

"There, you see, it didn't land!" Rosethorn said with triumph.

"It would have, if it weren't for that stupid cat!" Crane said angrily. 

"I still think it's a bird, after all the scent is small, the butterfly wouldn't have landed it, the butterfly couldn't even smell it! Plus Butterflies go for _red_ flowers not _blue_ flowers!" Rosethorn told him.

"Yes, but neither do birds, and the flowers aren't even strong enough for a bird to land on!" He took one of the flowers close to them and pushed on the petals to show what he meant.

"But if it was a hummingbird! Hummingbirds don't need to land!" Rosethorn argued.

Crane didn't say anything, instead just watched the flowers and found himself looking at a herd of deer, munching away at the flowers to their hearts content.

"They'll eat all the flowers," Crane said faintly.

Rosethorn started in horror. Crane stood up and waved him arms at the door. White tails went up and ran away in a flash. Briar scowled. They all sat back down and stared at the now smaller patch of flowers. 

There was a buzzing sound in Crane's ear. He swatted it away, but the buzzing sound kept coming back. He looked up and realized that bees surrounded them and the flowers. He looked triumphantly at Rosethorn. 

"None of them have landed yet," she told him smugly. 

"Ouch!" Briar yelped as a bee stung him.

"Run," Crane said and they stood up and followed Briar to the creek as fast as they could. 

They splashed into the water and lay down, attempting to completely submerge themselves in one foot of water. Briar splashed at the bees, hoping to make them go away. It didn't work and by the time the bees were gone they were all covered in red bumps.

"Mud," Rosethorn said as they climbed onto the muddy shore. 

Crane looked horrified, "I am NOT covering myself in mud!"

Briar, who had already covered himself in mud, looked at Crane, "it takes the sting away."

Crane sighed and decided that since he was already wet and slightly muddy, more mud couldn't hurt. They sat there slopping mud up and down their arms and legs, and wherever else the bees had stung. 

They trudged back to the spot where they had been recently watching the flowers. The bees were gone and there was no trace they had ever been there. Rosethorn looked at Crane. The expression on her face might have been smugness, but Crane wasn't sure since she had her face covered in mud as well. He snorted; she looked ridiculous. Rosethorn shook her head, a smile on her face, splattering mud everywhere, "For your information, you look as stupid as I."

Briar looked at Rosethorn, then at Crane. They were staring at each other with the oddest expressions, at least, it wasn't the usual expressions of dislike they had on, in fact, it might've even been the opposite.

"I don't believe bees pollinate the flowers," Rosethorn said softly, breaking the silence. 

"No, they don't," Crane agreed. Briar raised his eyebrows, they were actually _agreeing_ with each other. 

"But, it can't possibly be a bird!" he said.

Rosethorn said frustrated, "Please, lets not get into this argument again."

Crane sighed and looked at the flowers, which were swaying gently in the breeze coming in from the south. The seemed to be getting colder as the wind picked up and clouds started to cover the sky.

Rosethorn shivered in her wet, muddy clothing. Crane picked up his dry cloak that had previously been in the pack and wrapped it around Rosethorn. She smiled gratefully. Briar, looking at the sky, mumbled something about the weather.

"What was that?" Rosethorn asked. 

"I said; it might rain!" Briar said loudly. 

Rosethorn looked up at the dark clouds, whipping about the sky. She shook her head, "I think its just passing over us!"

Briar looked unconvinced, as a piece of grass twisted itself around his finger. There was a loud boom and lightening struck down in the distance. Crane sighed and scooted under a tree. The branches lowered down and twisted among them selves, creating a canopy. Rosethorn and Briar scooted under after him. It started to rain. They could hear the pitter-patter or raindrops hitting the leaves and branches. Suddenly it became very, very, dark, and you couldn't see far. The rain came down harder and managed to find ways between the leaves and splattered triumphantly on their faces. Lightening struck again, and the whole world was lit up for a split second, showing the flowers whipping violently around.

"I hope this isn't because Tris is angry!" Briar yelled over the wind. Neither Crane nor Rosethorn replied, they were feeling to wet and cold to.  

Just as abruptly as the storm had started, it stopped, the clouds disappeared, and the sun came out, and warmed up the world, except now it was warm and moist. They came out from underneath the tree and the branches returned to their original state. 

A small bird flew out from the trees and flicked around the flowers, its wings moving so fast you could only see a blur. Briar peered closely at the flowers, the birds were all over the place! He poked Rosethorn and pointed at the flowers. 

"Ah hah!" she cried, as a bird dipped its beak into a flower without landing, "Hummingbirds!"

Crane decided not to say anything as he watched the small beautiful birds go about their work. Instead, he began taking notes, in his notebook, which was somehow, not wet. Briar figured it was another spell like all the others on everything in Winding Circle. Rosethorn watched the birds, enchanted with them. This was the little bird who had caused all the commotion today. She was so busy watching the birds she didn't realize that when the mud had come off, so had the stings and swelling. 

"Well, now that we know its pollinator, we can get down to researching it more thoroughly," Crane said, packing up his things and getting ready to leave.

"Absolutely," Rosethorn said, standing up and brushing her hair from her eyes.     

**A/N: We're not putting up the third chapter until there are ten reviews. So tell other people on ff.net to read this and review it, but don't review it twice under different names. Hope ya'll like it! Oh and I wrote this story with my sister Snowbear. That is her name on ff.net so go read some of her stories too.**


	3. Betraying Thoughts

**A/N****: ****Yay! We got ten reviews! So here's the third chapter. Also um, can people get married at Winding Circle, even if they're dedicates? Oh yeah, and this book takes place somewhere in between the Circle of Magic books and Circle Opens.**

Rosethorn kneeled down in her garden and began pulling up weeds, why did it seem as if her garden got the most weeds? Probably because they liked her garden, it was the best one in all of Winding Circle and she was a plant mage, plants ought to be attracted to her, or maybe plant mages, the stray thought popped into her head.

After pulling up all the weeds she could find, she tossed off her work gloves and went into the hose.

"Briar! Come here! We're watering the plants!" She shouted through Discipline Cottage.      

Briar seemed to almost materialize in front of her. He waved a dark colored cloak in front of her, a gleeful smile on his face, "Look what I found! In the attic, it was just sitting there!"

Rosethorn raised her eyebrows, "Put that back immediately! That's is Lark's old invisibility cloak, she made it, now put it back!"

His face had a weird thoughtful expression on it, "If Lark made it, and Sandry is a thread mage as well…"

"Absolutely not! I forbid you to ask her to make a invisibility cloak for you to go sneaking around in it!" She told him sternly, "Now come on, we've watering to do."

Briar heaved a relieved sigh, "Thank goodness, I was sure you would say weeding!"

Lark came in holding a bundle of old clothes. Seeing what Briar was holding she quickly dumped the clothes on the table and grabbed the cloak from Briar.

"My old invisibility cloak!" she held it up happily, "I've been looking for this for ages! I'm sorry, but I really need this Briar, I'll have Sandry make a new one for you."

Rosethorn opened her mouth, then closed it in defeat, "Well come on Briar, lets do that watering, grab those watering cans right there!"

Briar grabbed them and followed Rosethorn outside. 

She turned on the pump and he held the watering cans beneath it while they filled up. 

She turned it off and took one of the watering cans and headed toward the farthest corner of the garden. Briar took the other one and headed for the opposite side.

                                                ***

Daja sniffed at the smell coming from the large pot in the middle of the table. It smelled delicious. She looked questioningly at Rosethorn, who had made it.

"Chicken Noodle Soup. My favorite," Rosethorn said and started dishing it out. 

Briar lifted a spoonful to his lips and tasted it. He licked the spoon clean, "This is YUMMY!"

Rosethorn raised an eyebrow at her student.

"Street slang for, very good food," Briar said in between mouthfuls.

"How any times do I have to tell you NOT to speak with your mouth full AND NOT to use street slang?!" Rosethorn told the boy.

"Um.."

Crane burst in, and looked around at everyone eating their soup. No one said anything.

"What are _you _doing here?" Rosethorn demanded, "and why don't you ever knock?"

"I, er, uh," it seemed to Crane that these days Rosethorn had a way of making him feel stupid.

"Well?" Rosethorn asked, hands on her hips, an arguing spark in her eyes.

"I came to talk about the flower, of course," Crane said stiffly, regaining his composure.

"Can't you see we're eating dinner?" Rosethorn asked, "Come back later."

"Oh no! Crane, would you like join us?" Lark asked politely.

Crane opened his mouth to say 'No Thank you' but instead the words, "Yes, thank you very much," slipped out.

He sat down in an empty chair, which happened to be next to Rosethorn, who was glaring at Lark. Rosethorn humphed.

"Temper, temper," Crane said softly.

Rosethorn whirled around to face him, "_What _did you say?"

"I said, have you discovered anything new about the flower?" Crane said quickly.

"No, you didn't, I heard you say something very different," for some odd reason it seemed to Briar, Tris, Daja, and Sandry that Rosethorn wasn't actually angry at him. They remained silent.

Lark was beginning to think maybe she shouldn't have invited Crane to dinner.

"I'm not hungry anymore," Rosethorn said and stood up, pushing her bowl away as she strode to her workroom.

"You didn't answer my question!" Crane said and followed her.

There was lots of shouting coming from the workroom, things that sounded like, "Weeding! You were _weeding?!_" and "Of course! I don't suppose YOU'VE taken care of YOUR garden lately?" and "Uh.." and some words that later Rosethorn made Briar promise never to repeat. The shouting softened until it just became a low murmur. 

"Well," Lark said, "they stopped arguing."

They continued eating the soup. 

Suddenly there was no sound at all coming from the workroom. Sandry paused and looked at the door. They all listened quietly. Silence. More silence. 

"Well, it's finally happened," Briar, announced, "she's killed him!"

Tris rolled her eyes, "Oh gosh Briar! They're probably just," she paused, "probably just…looking at the flower or something!"

Sandry nodded like she didn't quite believe Tris. Still there was no noise from the room. 

Then the door creaked open. Crane walked out, and stopped as he noticed everyone staring at him. A faint blush crept up his face, before he stormed out of the room. 

"Well, he's not dead," Daja said. 

                                                ***

"Maybe they like arguing," Tris suggested from on top of roof. It was the next day and the sky was clear blue with not a cloud to be seen. Rosethorn was still in her workroom, she hadn't come out yet, Lark had brought her some breakfast and reported that Rosethorn was not dead either; she had been studying the flower and had fallen asleep.

"_Like_ arguing? How can they _like_ arguing?" Sandry said in disbelief while leaning against the chimney.

"Well you have to admit Rosethorn did look, well.." Daja trailed off not finding the right word.

"Happy?" Briar supplied.

"Yeah, while they were arguing," Daja said.

"Huh." Sandry's face told a different story, "So if they like arguing, that means?"

"They like each other!" Briar said quickly, before realizing what he had said.

"**_Like_ each other? They ****_hate_ each other!" Sandry reminded them.**

"Yes, but they argue because they hate each other, but if they like arguing then, this is too confusing," Tris said shaking her head.

"Well actually come to think of it," Briar said, "There was that one time when I got back from a little hike when we went to find the pollinator and Crane and Rosethorn were looking at each other with the oddest expressions."

"Are you suggesting, what I think you're suggesting?" Daja asked.

"No," Briar said, "What are you thinking I'm suggesting?"

"Uh, nothing, nothing at all," Daja said quickly.

Tris snorted, "You think he's suggesting that maybe, they were like, well, you know."

"Okay, now you guys are going way too far!" Sandry said, "Maybe they like each other as in friends, but what you're saying, is completely and totally absurd!"

"Let's just drop the subject," Briar suggested.

"Good idea," Tris said.

                                                ***

Crane was in his workroom searching for herbal remedies that the flower might give. He'd tried crushing the leaves and making teas and broths and soups and an assortment of other things.

He opened a book on herbal remedies and began flipping through it until he came to a page where it read about a flower in which was burned. The smoke was soothing to the lungs.

"Hmm," Crane said thoughtfully. He took a match and lit one of the flowers on fire, he winced at doing this, but learning what the flower could do could turn out to be very useful in the future, and there were still thousands of them left.

Slowly the room began filling with smoke. He put out the fire and let the smoke drift around. It had a strange poisonous smell. He coughed a little bit then started stumbling to the window to open it and let the smoke out.

The smoke started to leave but he was already on the floor coughs wracking his whole body… 

                                       ***

Rosethorn was frustrated and confused. She and Crane had always hated each other, but now, this, Crane _had _kissed her, twice. To her amazement she found that she didn't actually mind, rather, she liked it. 

Rosethorn slammed the book closed. Her mind would just not let her concentrate. She needed to talk to Crane, that's what. She walked out of her workshop and out of Discipline Cottage. Tris was sitting on the front steps.

"Where are you going?" Tris asked, looking up from her book.

"I'm going over to Crane's workroom to," her mind said _kiss him_ and she quickly said, "talk to him," before her mind let her speak those two unthinkable words. 

Tris watched Rosethorn's retreating back. The woman, who was usually composed and sure of herself seemed, nervous, and unsure. At the moment Tris dismissed it and buried herself  back in her book.

Rosethorn meanwhile, suddenly found herself in front of Crane's workroom, knocking on his door. No one answered. Hmm, that's strange, I was sure he would be here, Rosethorn thought, disappointed. She considered walking away, but then again, what if he just decided not to answer? Or even worse what if he didn't want to talk to her? She really thought she should go back to her own workroom, but her mind had other ideas. 

_No! Don't go away! You really want to see Crane, his deep brown eyes, his pitch black hair, to have him hold you to… _Rosethorn quickly shook her head to clear her mind of such absurd, _but true, _her mind insisted, thoughts. 

She pushed open the door to Crane's workroom.

                                       ***

Lark was weaving. Daja had just come back from the blacksmith and was talking with Briar, who was trying to get his Shakkan to put out a few more leaves. Tris was, of course, reading her book and Sandry was watching Lark weave.

The door creaked open. Rosethorn stood there, her eyes wide open and dazed, tears streaming down her face. 

"Crane," she said softly, " He, he's dead."

**A/N: To be continued, until, that is, we have 15 reviews…**

**Oh yes, and please answer this question:**

**Can dedicates get married? Just wondering, 'cause no one really makes it clear…**


	4. He Can't Be Dead...

**A/N: I wrote this with Snowbear (that's her ff.net name) so go read some of her stories, and ignore that Snowbear and Castor account, we decided not to do that.**

Rosethorn sat in her workroom staring at the wall. Why was it you didn't realize how much you really truly liked someone until they died or went away?

It'd been so sudden, no one had been expecting it, he was among the great plant mages, and no one believed that he'd die let alone get hurt while doing experiments with his plants. 

Thinking about him again tears began streaming, she tried to do some work, but her heart, mind and soul would not let her. No one close to her had ever died, when she was little her grandparents had, but that was normal, they had died of old age. For Crane to die though, for him to leave her life like this so suddenly, was just not right.

She didn't know if she loved him, they'd always had friendly arguments that old rivals most always have. She'd sort of come to enjoy these arguments. In the beginning they really had hated each other and argued for real, but as time came by they grew used to each other and she supposed they were even friends, yet they would continue to argue for the sake of it. He was hard to get along with, very hard to tolerate. He was too proud, to sure of himself, Rosethorn had always hated that about him. 

She supposed they continued arguing so much because it came natural to them, she had a sharp tongue and a temper, her glare alone was enough the scare most people away. Crane was proud, and believed himself better than some people at times, he always had to be correct, and his idea was always according to him, most probably right. It was easy for them both to find something to argue about, nowadays it almost seemed, that she liked arguing with him, it seemed almost normal like just having a normal conversation. 

But now he was dead, they'd never argue again, never speak to each other, never even see each other. Tears streamed down her face falling on the open book she hadn't even started to read. She closed it and walked out of her workroom and into her bedroom. 

She only partly acknowledged Lark sitting on the sofa watching as she went into her room.

Rosethorn lay down on her bed and cried, this bed that she'd died in, and come back in. If she felt this horrible when he had died, how would have Lark, Briar, Tris, Sandry, Daja and all those other people have felt. Right then she was very glad she hadn't died. She wouldn't want to be the cause of a whole bunch suffering.

Her tears slowed a bit and her thoughts trailed to that time when Crane had first looked at her in that way that said I think I love you. She supposed that's when he had first starting loving her. Crane really did love her; those two kisses hadn't just been nothing, and now thinking about it she realized she loved him back. 

                                      ***

There was a knock on her door. Rosethorn jerked out of sleep, she'd been dreaming of the time when she had been sick with the blue pox. Crane had come a visited her. She had told him to go away but he stayed a moment longer before leaving. She remembered that in that moment she'd felt something. That was when Crane probably started loving her.

Lark peered in, "Feeling all right? Anything I can get you?" she asked. Rosethorn could see Lark had been crying a bit too, not as much as she had though.

"No," she said softly and sat up in her bed, "It's just, I never, realized, how much he meant to me."

Lark came and sat down next to her, "With time, Rosie, with time."

"I just miss him so much," Rosethorn said feeling a tear trickle down her cheek.

"You loved him, didn't you?" Lark asked.

"He loved me first," Rosethorn told her friend. 

"I made some tea, it's on the stove, I'll go get some," Lark stood to leave.

"Thank-you but I don't want any," Rosethorn told Lark's retreating back.

Lark came back in holding a cup with lightly steaming tea, she sat down again next to Rosethorn and handed her the cup, "Here, drink."

Rosethorn took a sip, it was the tea Lark called Sleepy Time Tea. Lark had put just the right milk and sugar in it. Though it was called Sleepy Time it didn't have sleepy effects. 

          She finished her tea then stood up, "I think I'll go do some gardening."

          "Good idea, it will help calm you," Lark said as Rosethorn left. 

                                      ***

Briar strode triumphantly into the room they were all meeting in. Tris was sitting on the bed reading. He looked at the title. It read, he couldn't read the title, it was too old.

"_What _have you been reading this past week?" Briar demanded, sitting down next to his friend.

"Old scriptures and stories of Winding Circle, its really quite interesting," Tris said and stuck her nose back in it.

"Absolutely fascinating," Briar rolled his eyes. 

"You're so rude, Briar, did anyone ever tell you that?" Tris asked and put her book down.

"Down to business?" Sandry wondered.

"Good idea," Daja spoke up.

"I think this proves it," Briar announced, "I mean look at how unhappy Rosethorn is…"

"Maybe they were just really good friends. I mean, I cried a little bit when I heard that he had died," Sandry said.

"Well, I guess we'll never truly know," Daja said and stood up, brushing off herself off. 

"Well, personally, I'd say good riddance," Briar said.

Tris nudged him. He looked up. Rosethorn was standing in the doorway. 

Her eyes were burning with anger and her hands were clenched as if she was trying to stop herself from wrapping them around Briar's neck. She strode off.

"Honestly Briar. You have no respect for the dead," Sandry scolded him.

"Did you see the look in her eyes?" Tris asked, "That was _scary_…"

                                      ***

Rosethorn tore up a weed as if it was its entire fault. Briar! He could be a little bit rude sometimes, a little bit careless, but this was going just to far! He needed a punishment. Maybe she could carry out her old threat and hang him in the well. Yes, that would do nicely. Seeing another blue flower with red thorns, still unnamed, she tore it up. 

This was that stupid flower's entire fault! If they had never found the flower, Crane never would have done experiments on it, and therefore never have died! Then again, there was no proof that the flower itself had done anything. 

Oh God, he was really gone wasn't he?  Rosethorn felt tears trickling down her cheeks again. Those stupid tears! Why did they keep coming back? A little dandelion reached up and curled itself around her fingers. Was their relationship just not meant to be? Was that why he died? 

Life just wasn't possible without Crane; for a fleeting moment her mind went to the knife in her workroom. No! She thought, she would NOT commit suicide and cause Lark, Briar, and the girls the pain and suffering that Crane's death was causing her. 

There just had to be some way, he just couldn't be dead; it wasn't possible. Not when she was just starting to realize and accept her love for him. 


	5. He's Alive!

**A/N: Chapter Five! **

One month from chapter four… 

1:46 AM 

Crane opened his eyes. He couldn't see a thing. Where was he? He was lying on cold metal with a sheet over his body. How could he have gotten here? One second, he was coughing and everything was going dark, then poof! He was lying on cold metal. He reached a hand up and it met more metal just a few inches from his face. 

Crane felt all around him and suddenly realized he was lying in a very small, enclosed space. He pushed against the metal against his feet. The, whatever he was lying on moved. A slit of light showed through. He pushed more and then was able to reach up and pull it out completely. He had been in a drawer of some sort. 

Looking around in the dim light he realized the whole wall was covered in similar drawers. Turning behind him he paled. A dead body was laid out on a table. With horror Crane realized where he must be. He was dead. _Or so everyone must think_, he though smugly. _I wonder how long I've been 'dead'?_

Crane shook his head and climbed off the drawer, only to realize he was wearing absolutely nothing. Blushing, although no one was there, _except dead people,_ he wrapped the sheet around himself. 

He walked to the door and pushed it open. It wasn't locked. Of course, who would expect dead bodies to get up and walk around? No one, that's who.

Luckily the night was warm, with a cool breeze tickling around his ankles. Crane felt like he had just taken a nice long nap… a _very _long nap. 

Looking up he saw the stars twinkling cheerfully at him. There was no moon.

"Stupid twinklers," Crane mentally slapped himself.

'Twinklers' was his childhood word for stars.

"I wanna see the twinklers!" as he could very vividly remember saying whenever he was aloud to stay up that late.

Crane strode boldly out into the darkness, until, that is, he bumped smack into a tree. 

After that he walked cautiously, feeling his way around in the pitch blackness of the night. Quite a few times he fell, or tripped over his sheet. 

"Stupid sheet," he said as he tripped and fell straight into a puddle of especially gooey mud.

"Stupid mud," he said as he wiped it off his face.

"Stupid flower," he added as an afterthought. He probably wouldn't have "died" if it weren't for it.

"Stupid me."

"Stupid tree stump."

"Stupid moon."

"Stupid twink- stars."

Crane continued on in this manner until he reached a place that seemed familiar. He peered around until he realized it was Rosethorn's garden. Just the… feeling of the place shouted out Rosethorn! 

If this was Rosethorn's garden, then that meant… Discipline Cottage was right there! Crane perked up and wandered around until he found the door. He pushed it slowly open. To his surprise, Rosethorn sat at the table, absent mindedly stirring a cup of tea. She looked sad. Horribly sad. Crane's heart tugged at the sight of her so unhappy. What could possibly upset her like this? He just wanted to go over and tell her everything was alright, that he'd take care of everything.

3:17 AM

Rosethorn sat at the table. It was very late at night and Briar's snores were drifting into the room. She smiled wirily. He _should _be tired. She made him weed and water the whole garden by himself. 

A cup of tea sat in front of her, long gone cold. Rosethorn stirred it absent mindedly as she thought about the past.

The door creaked open. At first, Rosethorn didn't hear and dismissed it to be old floorboards. She turned her eyes slowly to the floor at the door and jumped. A pair of feet, a pair of very muddy, very scratched feet, were standing there. She stared at them for a moment before realizing that there was a body attached. 

Rosethorn's eyes traveled up the body and rested on his face. It was someone she didn't know, for she didn't know anyone who walked around covered in mud and wearing nothing but a sheet around his waist.

"May I help you s- Crane?" the look on her face turned from politeness to astonishment, happiness, wonder, and love alike.

Rosethorn stood up, knocked the chair over in doing so, ran over to him, and wrapped her arms around him. 

Looking up at him she asked, "Is it really you?"

Crane replied as he held her tightly, "Who else would it be?"

"I don't know!" she answered.

"A corpse?" he asked her, running his fingers through her hair.

To Crane's surprise Rosethorn started crying, something he had never imagined, let alone seen, her do.

"I thought you were dead!" she said between sobs.

"I wasn't."

"Kiss me," she murmured, looking into his eyes.

Crane obliged. 

Suddenly Rosethorn pushed away from him and glared at him, "How _dare _you do that to me?"

"But, I didn't do anything!" Crane said, very confused.

"You _died_!" Rosethorn accused, then paused, "how'd you come back?"

Crane shook his head, "I don't think I was actually dead… perhaps I was in a coma of some sort."

"Well you should at least warn me when you do!" Rosethorn ordered him.

He looked at her oddly, "and you would actually _care _if I died?"

"Of course I care!" Rosethorn looked hurt as she glared at him through tears, "I love you! Do you have any idea what I've been going through this past month?!"

"You love me?" Crane asked, his face a mixture of joy and wonder.

"Of course I love you, you dodo-brain, where have you been?" Rosethorn exclaimed.

"Dead?" Crane asked dryly. Rosethorn gave him an accusing look, although it didn't quite work because she was also trying to smile.

Crane leaned down to kiss her. Afterwards they just stood there in each other's arms. Crane whispered in her ear, "I love you too."

"I should go, uh, get cleaned up," Crane said remembering he was covered in mud and wearing nothing but a sheet, "Now I've got you all muddy too."

"I don't care, a little dirt never hurt, as Briar always says," Rosethorn said with a shrug. She walked over to the cupboard and got a lamp so that Crane wouldn't have to feel his way through the darkness.

She then got a match and lit it handing it to Crane, "Here you go, don't be gone too long, I don't think I'd be able to stand it."

"I won't, don't worry, one can only die so many times," Crane assured her, "You should clean yourself up a bit as well."

And with that he left. An hour later he came back, looking fresh and clean. _And more handsome_, Rosethorn's mind told her. _He was never not handsome!_ Rosethorn told her mind.

Crane sat down at the table next to Rosethorn who poured him a cup of tea that she had apparently made while he was away. 

"So how did you _die_ and how come you're not dead right now?" Rosethorn asked him setting down her cup of tea.

"I'm not quite sure, but I believe I _died_ because of the smoke," he told her.

"Smoke?"

"I was reading in a book about a flower who's smoke healed, so I burned the flower, its smoke, depending on how much you get, puts you in a coma of sorts," Crane said thoughtfully.

"Yes, but when you're in a coma you're still breathing and stuff," Rosethorn argued.

"Then perhaps it, time-stops your body, or stops it in time," he said, "does that make sense?"

Rosethorn nodded her head, "Better not let anyone know that, or else this flower will become illegal."

"We'll have to make it illegal anyway, just in case some one accidentally burns it, we just won't tell the public what about it is illegal," Crane.

"Speaking of the flower, what are we going to name it?" Rosethorn asked.

Crane thought for a moment then a smile lit up his features, "Roscra."

"Where'd that come from?" Rosethorn asked.

"First three letters of our names," Crane told her, "you first because Craros doesn't sound right."

"I like it," Rosethorn said then smiled, "For a moment I was thinking we could name it Briar, but then I remembered that his name already was a plant."

Crane smiled. 

For the rest of the night and well into the morning, that is until Briar stumbled into the room, they talked.

His eyes were closed and he stumbled over to the cupboard and got a cup and filled it with water, then he glanced at Rosethorn, opening his eyes a crack, and proceeded out of this room with his cup of water.

There was a thud and then a splash. Briar ran back into the room.

He pointed wildly at Crane, "Rosethorn, there's a dead body sitting next to you!"

Crane tried very hard to keep and straight face and succeeded.

"Nonsense, he's not dead, what makes you think that?" Rosethorn told the boy.

"Lark! Rosethorn's gone nuts! Crane's dead body is sitting next to her and she is talking to it!" He shouted through out the house.

"I'm not dead," Crane said.

"Ah! It can talk! What did you do to it Rosethorn?" Briar was going hysterical. 

The girls and Lark entered the room.

"Hello Crane," Lark said, "Crane?!"

"I told you!" Briar said shaking Lark's shoulders.

"There must be a sensible answer to this," Sandry said in a not quite believing herself voice.

"I have the weirdest dreams," Tris announced rubbing her eyes.

"You can say that again," Daja agreed with Tris.

Lark walked to the center of the room, "All right, everyone sit down while Rosethorn and er Crane explain what is going on here."

Her eyes flicked back and forth from Rosethorn and Crane.

Once everyone was seated, Crane stood up, "I am not dead, I am alive, and I'm not a corpse, I never was dead, Rosethorn and I have talked and our theory is that the flower's smoke, depending on the amount you get time-stops your body for a certain amount of time."

There was silence then Sandry spoke up cautiously, "So, you've just woken up from your time-stop?" 

Crane nodded.

"And you're not back from the dead?" Briar asked.

Crane nodded again. 

"Alright then," Lark said, "I suppose we had better inform the Hospital that there is not a corpse walking around."

Rosethorn spoke up, "I've been up all night, I think I'll go to bed now." 

Crane shook his head, "I've been doing nothing for a month, I'm wide awake."

Briar, who had been thinking said, "What was it like in the corpse place?"

Crane blinked, "Cold, and quite unpleasant."

Briar muttered under his breath, "just like you."

"And I'd prefer not to talk about it," Crane said and strode off. 

"Anyone up for breakfast?" Lark asked.  
  
****

**A/N: You see, we couldn't possibly kill him! Tee hee. Thank-you all you people who have reviewed our story! When we have _ _ reviews we'll put up the next chapter.**


	6. Quick, Pretend We're Arguing

A/N: Yay! The sixth chapter! After this there'll be a seventh, eighth, and maybe a ninth. Or maybe a sequel….

In Crane's workroom… 

"Roscra," Rosethorn muttered as she tended to the flower. 

Crane came over to her table, "here try this."

He handed her a small bottle with a liquid in it. Rosethorn took the bottle and poured it into the flower's soil. It hissed and sizzled, but the flower didn't do anything. 

"I don't think the flower does much of anything, except put people into a time stop… we should test that," Rosethorn said.

Crane looked at her, he was sitting at a desk taking notes on the flower for a book he was going to write on it. 

"Not on us though," Crane said sharply.

"Maybe we could trap the smoke in a bottle… we could burn the flower under a case, the although some of the smoke to come out and it a bottle. In the bottle would be something that absorbed smell, so whenever you smelled the bottle, you would be time-stopped," Rosethorn explained. 

"Oh, speaking of which, I sent a letter to the Control of Dangerous Plants Company, asking them to put the Roscra on the list of Illegal Plants," Crane told her. 

Rosethorn, meanwhile was looking for a large glass case. Upon finding one she placed it over the flower and its pot. Then she took the case off, lit a match and started burning the flower. Before any smoke could come off it she put the case over it. Brown, ugly smoke started filling the case. She took a bottle filled with smell soaking up stuff and held it to a small opening. Once the bottle was full she closed its lid and the opening on the case. She held it up triumphantly.  

"There! One sniff should stop me for a hour or less, I'm not sure," Rosethorn said.

Crane stood up, horrified, "No! I refuse to let you do that!"

"And who are you to be ordering me around?" Rosethorn demanded.

"That's a very very unplanned test! This stuff has only been used once!" Crane said, but he was too late. Rosethorn sniffed the smoke, put the lid back on the bottle, "Rosethorn!"

"Don't worry," Rosethorn said, and sat down, the next instant she looked dead.

Crane stepped over to her and touched her arm. She was as cold as stone. There was no pulse. Crane shivered. So this was how they found him. No wonder he was labeled dead. He reached down and took the bottle from her hand. How long would he have to wait for her to wake? What if, what if she didn't? What if it killed her this time? 

_Idiot! _He thought angrily.

He pulled a chair up in front of her and sat down to wait. He sighed. She was so, so stubborn! She just frustrated him down to the bone, but that was only down to the bone, down to the heart she made him feel like the earth spun round just for him.

He planned on yelling at her a good bit when she woke up, "Oh Rosethorn? Wake-up, wake-up!"

She was as still as ever. He glanced at the clock; it had been five minutes. He stood up and put the chair back and busied himself on writing down facts about the flower on some parchment. 

He glanced at the clock again; now it had been nearly 20 minutes. He looked back at Rosethorn, she was as still as ever. He tried to busy himself in his work, hoping that no one would unexpectedly burst in.

"Crane?"

He jumped up and spun around. Rosethorn was standing up, she looked perfectly alive and healthy as ever.

"Rosethorn!" He said maybe a bit too gleefully, then added, "I should kill you! You could have killed yourself, we had no reasons to believe that the smoke would do the same thing to you as to me! You foolish idiot!"

"Me? I'm the foolish idiot?" Rosethorn raised her eyebrows calmly, "Seems to me the only idiot here is the one the burned a flower having no idea what effect the smoke might have on himself, not even bothering to open a window."

Crane opened his mouth, and then closed it. Rosethorn grinned. 

He opened his mouth again as if he had a smart remark to that, then closed it again, he repeated this over a few times before finally giving in.

"All right, all right, I give up, we're both idiots," he said with a sigh.

"You mean I'm a idiot, and you're a bigger idiot," Rosethorn told him pointing her finger at him, to emphasize her words.

 Crane smiled, "Maybe we should make a group of idiots."

He pushed his chair away and walked over to her and put his arms around her waist.

"I love you," he said, "and I _never _want to see you hurt."

Rosethorn nodded, "same goes with me, Crane."

She put her arms around his shoulders and she leaned up to kiss him. Their lips met and she felt warmth flow throughout her body. _He's actually a very good kisser, _Rosethorn thought. 

Just then she heard footsteps outside. She pulled away and looked outside.

"Someone's coming," she said, "quick, pretend we're arguing."

Lark peeked in. Rosethorn could make out the voices of Briar and the girls behind her.

Rosethorn gave a meaningful glance at Crane. He looked around wildly for a second then said, "Well, you're stupid."

"Your face is stupid!" Rosethorn retorted.

"Your butt is stupid!" Crane retaliated.

"My butt? My butt? My _butt_ is stupid?" Rosethorn asked incredulously, "I have never been so insulted in my life! And you know what? Your hair, your hair is the stupidest thing I've ever seen in my life!"

"My hair? Your hair is stupid, ugly, beautiful, horrible, silky, awful, gross, wonderful, slimy, and most of all stupid!" Crane obviously wasn't aware of the other three words that happened to slip in; Lark luckily wasn't either. Rosethorn, on the other hand, had and  was grinning.

"Excuse my interruption, but dinner's ready and um, if you want some then it'll be sitting on the table," Lark said tentatively. 

"Ah, yes, dinner," Rosethorn said unable to stop grinning, "Heh heh," she glanced at the clock, "lost track of time, what'd you know."

Lark nodded her head, "Well I'll be off then. If you want to join us Crane, don't bother to help your self, come along Briar, Tris, Sandry, Daja."

They left.

The foursome had been very quiet during the… fight.

Lark peeked back in the window to see if they had resumed fighting. They hadn't. They were kissing. She raised her eyebrows and followed the girls and Briar.

***

"Did you get the feeling they weren't really fighting?" Tris asked later at the dinner table after Lark had left.

"No, not really," Sandry said.

"Oh come on! Your butt is stupid? How fake can you get?" Briar asked.

"They're in love," Daja said dreamily.

"No they're not," Sandry said as if it was obvious, "I mean really, they haven't even kissed, we have no proof what so ever."

Briar grinned wickedly, "Wanna bet?"

"You don't mean to say, you actually saw them, well, kissing?" Tris asked in amazement.

"No, but I'll bet if we were to secretly watch them long enough…" Briar suggested.

"You mean spy?" Daja demanded.

"Unless," Tris said thinking, "they don't know they're in love."

"For the millionth time, may I remind you, they're not in love," Sandry said tapping her foot impatiently.

"I'll bet you two silver crescents," Briar said challenging her.

"We're not actually going to spy on them?" Daja asked.

"Sure, why not?" Briar wondered casually.

"Well, Briar, you were a street rat for your whole life, and we weren't," Tris reminded the boy.

"You're not all saying that you've never spied on someone?" Briar asked in disbelief. 

All three girls immediately looked away or busied themselves with they're empty plates.

"You see?" Briar said triumphantly.

Two hours later… 

Briar, Sandry, Daja, and Tris all found themselves crouched outside the window of Crane's workroom.

"Check again," Briar whispered to Tris.

The copper-curled girl peeked carefully over the windowsill. Rosethorn was leaning over the flower doing something with something else. Crane was taking notes. She couldn't see either of them very well due to the large plant that had been planted right in front of the window on the outside. If one wanted to look in, one had to push away quite a bit of branches. 

This, of course, also provided a good hiding spot, from both Crane and Rosethorn, and any person who happened to walk by on the outside.

"Same as before," Tris muttered to them.

"What did I tell you?" Sandry hissed, hoping greatly nothing happened. She didn't have two silver crescents at the time. 

"Just wait, just wait," Daja said, sure something, even a very little something, would happen.

"I'm checking again," Briar said and peered through the window. Rosethorn and Crane were both looking at each other, their eyes locked.

Briar ducked back down, "they're looking at each other!"

"So?" Sandry asked, "what's wrong with that?"

Daja poked her head up, "Crane stood up! He's walking over to Rosethorn and whispering something in her ear. She's smiling, as if it's funny. Okay, now she's turned her head and is smiling up at him."

Sandry snorted, and looked up for herself, Tris and Briar followed her example.

"They're very close," Tris observed.

"They're just talking," Daja pointed out, and indeed Rosethorn's lips were moving.

"Can anyone here lip read?" Briar asked as he, and Tris and Sandry, ducked back down.

"I can," Daja said, grinning mischievously, as she too ducked down.

"What did she say?" Tris demanded, but Daja shook her head.

"You don't want to know," Daja said.

"Why not?" Briar demanded.

"Oh all right," Daja said, "she said… she said, well let's put it this way. She said, well actually I can't lip read."

Briar peeked through the window again, "they're really close now, I think, wait, no."

He leaned back down, "let's open the window a crack."

Tris leaned up with Briar to push the window open a tiny crack. Rosethorn's voice drifted through.

"Go and sit down, we really need to get this flower figured out," she said. Sandry looked triumphant.

"You meant the Roscra," Crane reminded her. He was talking a tone of voice they'd never heard him speak in before. Tris raised her eyebrows.

"Roscra," Daja said thoughtfully.

Tris pushed her ear to the crack, then stared back through the window. Crane brushed a strand of her hair away from her face.

"Your eyes are beautiful," he said softly.

"You guys listening to this?" Tris asked. 

Suddenly her eyes wide she sat back down leaning against the wall, "You guys…"

"What?" Sandry asked and took a peek herself, "Oh," she said as she sat back down, "I guess, I guess I was wrong."

"Really?" Briar quickly stole a glance through the window, "Ugh, they're kissing!"

"What's so gross about kissing?" Tris asked, "It's a perfectly normal thing and you'll probably be doing it one of these days."

"Yeah, but Crane and Rosethorn!" He said.

"You guys, they named the flower from the first three letters of both of their names," Daja suddenly spoke up.

Before anyone else could say anything Rosethorn's voice once again drifted out to them.

"I thought I just heard something outside."

"It's nothing, love. I have charms on this room," Crane answered.

There was a sudden scrambling and flying a twigs and dirt as the four hurried off.


	7. Fishing

**A/N: Tee hee, we went fishing the day we wrote this. **

"Have you ever been fishing?" Rosethorn asked thoughtfully, glancing up at Crane from her work.

"Fishing?" Crane looked blank.

"There is a nice lake nearby…" she trailed off.

"Would that qualify as a date?" Crane stared at her.

"If you want to think of it like that, go ahead," Rosethorn shrugged.

"Alright," Crane replied, "and by the way, I've never been on a boat in my entire life."

"Never?" asked Rosethorn.

"Never," confirmed Crane.

"It's never to late to learn!" Rosethorn said cheerfully.

"When?" Crane wondered.

"The day is young," Rosethorn said, smiling up at Crane.

"Yes," he nodded, smiling slightly.

"What are we waiting for then?" Rosethorn asked cheerfully, discarding her work. 

"I'll pack a lunch," Crane said, leaving the workroom, Rosethorn close on his heels. 

"I'll get changed, this is hardly a good outfit for fishing, and get bait and stuff," Rosethorn announced and headed towards Discipline Cottage.

"Meet you here in ten minutes," Crane said. 

Ten minutes later… 

Rosethorn arrived wearing a tunic and breeches carrying two fishing poles and tackle box.

Crane appeared seconds later wearing breeches and a tunic and carrying a sack full of food.

"Shall we go?" he asked.

"Yes, I've told Lark," Rosethorn said they walked to the lake, since it was about a half hour walk.

Half an hour later… 

Rosethorn stepped into the canoe from the small, falling apart dock. She sat down in the back and took her paddle from the dock and put it into the canoe.

"Hand me the tackle box Crane," she told the air dedicate.

He obliged and handed it to her, then stood waiting, a bit uncertain on what to do.

"Now get in and hand me those fishing poles," he took the fishing poles and stepped into the canoe then sat down in the seat up in the front of the canoe, handing Rosethorn the poles, she put them in the middle of the boat with the tackle box.

"Take your paddle and stick it in the water, like this," she demonstrated.

"This seems a quite slow and un-accurate way to travel," Crane stated.

"Yes, but it's quite fun once you get used to it, we'll go that little patch of reeds out there," she pointed far out into the lake where there was a little fuzzy spot.

"Are you sure we'll be able to make it _all_ the way out there before the day's up?" Crane asked looking doubtful.

"Sure," Rosethorn said, "Should only take about and hour or so, if we paddle good and hard, keep you paddle on the port side."

"Port?"

"Left, and starboard is right."

"Ah."

The lake was glassy smooth and the canoe glided over it much faster than Crane had accounted for. Peering down into its depth he saw mostly weeds and greenness. 

His arm was starting to ache and he glanced back at Rosethorn who was still paddling strongly.

_She must have muscles of steel,_ he thought to himself.

"May I switch to the other side?" He asked.

"You mean the starboard?" Rosethorn asked.

"Yes," Crane said.

"Sure," she switched her paddle to the port side while Crane switched his to the starboard.

***

"It's so romantic!" Daja said dreamily, leaning against the chimney.

"So, where's those two silver crescents Sandry?" Briar asked smugly.

"Uh, one moment," Sandry hurried over to Tris who was, of course, reading a book, "Say Tris, you don't by any chance have two silver crescents?"

Tris shook her head while keeping her eyes on the pages of her book. Sandry glanced at the cover, "You're still reading that Winding Circle History stuff?"

"It's good," Tris replied.

Sandry sidled back over to Briar, "Briar, can I pay you later, I don't have to silver crescents."

"I know," the boy said simply.

"You know?" Sandry asked in disbelief.

"Yes, you don't have to pay, I was only kidding really when I made that bet," Briar told the girl.

"I just can't believe you were right! I mean I sort of guess I believed it all along too, but I just couldn't accept it!" Sandry said sitting next to him.

"I think it's wonderful, I mean it's like a story out of a book, two people hate each other supposedly, but they actually love each other," Daja said happily. 

Anyhow, back to the two main characters… 

"This looks like a good spot," Rosethorn said peering down into the murky depths of the lake. She glanced up at Crane and grinned. Seemed she was grinning a lot lately, Crane thought and smiled.

"How can you tell?" he asked watching her as she dropped down the anchor. Just watching her made his heart pound. He was filled with this feeling, of yearning, happiness, and love. 

"Here," she handed him a fishing pole and he took it awkwardly.

Crane glanced around, "Rosethorn, love?"

She looked back up at him, she was attempting to get a worm out of the dirt and it was refusing.

"Stupid worm," she muttered, "what was it you wanted?"

"How, exactly do you, fish?" he asked.

Rosethorn chuckled and came over to sit next to him. The canoe tipped precariously and Crane grabbed the edges.

"Don't worry, they may be quite tippy, but they never really tip over," she assured him. 

She took his rod and placed his hands on it, "hold it like this," she instructed him, "Now, before you put it in the water, you put the worm on the hook."

She reached over and took the little box that held the worms, pulling one out she closed the box and put the worm on lap, she ripped a fourth of the worm off and shoved it onto the hook.

Crane grimaced, "It's still alive."

Rosethorn shrugged, "Once you put it in the water it'll die."

He'd never realized how cruel fishing was. Rosethorn had a strong gut to be able to put a wiggling piece of worm on a sharp hook.

She rearranged his hands on the rod then showed him how to let out the line then pull it in a little bit to get it at just the right depth.

"I never knew how complicated fishing was," he said as Rosethorn put her line into the water.

Rosethorn leaned against Crane as the day wore slowly on. So far they'd had no bites, despite the fact that this was the best fishing spot on the lake. Crane suggested moving but Rosethorn said they wouldn't do any better elsewhere. The fish just weren't hungry yet.

Suddenly Crane's rod gave a jerk, he immediately leaned forward and Rosethorn turned around to see what he got. His rod was bent down close to the water as Crane reeled in the line as quick as he could. Suddenly a little fish popped out of the water. It was a sunfish, and a baby one at that. 

"A throw-back," Rosethorn told him. 

Crane reached for the little fish to take off the hook and it gave a little flip flop in the air, he withdrew his hand, startled.

"Here give it to me," Rosethorn said reaching for his line. 

Crane obliged and Rosethorn gripped the little fish firmly as she pulled the hook out of its mouth and tossed it back into the water.

The worm was still on Crane's hook so he put it back into the water. 

Then it was Rosethorn's turn to catch something and that turn came quickly.

Her rod bent quickly downward into the water and she pulled hard on it reeling the line in. 

This fish did not pop out of the water though, it was very determined to stay in the water so Rosethorn grabbed the net and scooped it out of the water.

"A Walleye!" she announced proudly. She lifted it out of the net carefully and pulled the hook out. The fish was a least a foot long.

"Definitely a keeper," she said putting the fish into a bucket filled with water.

All this while the canoe had been slowly floating more into the reeds. Rosethorn did not notice that they were happily creeping up along the sides of the boat until the boat started to tip dangerously. 

Crane cleared his throat and leaned down to tell the plants off. Rosethorn then also noticed them and her glare sent the rest of them off the canoe.

Crane then had the reeds push them out of the patch and into the fishing spot once again.

The moment Crane dropped his line into the water again it began to be pulled down fiercely.

Rosethorn peered down into the water and her eyeballs nearly popped out, "That's one **big** Northerner."

 "I can tell," Crane said standing up straining to pull the large fish out of the water.

Rosethorn, unmindful of the rocking boat, stood up as well to help him. 

The Northerner gave another large yank and Rosethorn watched as he tottered hazardously, she couldn't help it, it was too tempting, it would only take one little push and he go falling in. She glanced around and gave him a nudge with her elbow; he fell in. 

In a moment he splashed to the surface, then stood up, "quite shallow water really."

"Here, let me help you up," Rosethorn said as she reached a hand down to him. 

"Why thank-you," he said, a mischievous grin on his face. He took her hand and pulled her into the water. There was another large splash. 

She came up to the surface sputtering, "Oh! How dare you! Why I oughta"-

Crane tilted her chin up and looked her in the eye, a faint smile playing about his lips.

"I love the way you look when you're mad," he said softly.

Rosethorn opened her mouth fully intending to give a snide remark back, but Crane didn't give her the chance, for the next minute she far too busy kissing him, to argue with him. 

Rosethorn pulled away, breathless as Crane ran his fingers through her wet, coppery colored, hair.

She leaned against him and they stood like that for several minutes before either one of them spoke.

"We should get back in the canoe," Crane murmured.

 Rosethorn paused a moment then replied, "Oh yeah."

Crane chuckled at her response and Rosethorn looked up at him grinning as he smiled fondly down at her.

Crane boosted her back into the canoe and she gave him a hand up and soon they were on their way back to the temple.

***

Lark, Briar and the girls all sat at the table while Lark taught them cooking skills.

"I don't wanna learn how to cook!" Briar complained as he added two cups of salt instead of sugar to the dough. 

"You'll need it one of these days boy."

Briar jumped and looked up. Rosethorn was standing in the doorway holding a large fish. Crane stood next to her. Briar couldn't help but notice how close they were standing to each other. He also noticed that they were sopping wet.

"What happened?" Lark asked.

"We fell in," Rosethorn stated simply and strode off to her room. Crane paused in the doorway for a moment, before turning and going off to get changed. 

**A/N: The next chapter will be put up once we have 50 reviews. **


	8. Fire, My Love

A/N: Finally! This chapter is up! And the next won't be up for at least three-four days. Sorry to say…

"We really should tell someone," Crane said, walking along the path to the gardens with Rosethorn.

"Yes, I know, but what would we say?" Rosethorn asked uncertainly.

"Our relationship is pretty secret, no one knows," Crane replied.

"Lark knows," Rosethorn said.

"Lark?" Crane stopped walking and looked straight at Rosethorn, "and how does she know?"

"Well, she sort of figured out and I confirmed her suspicions," Rosethorn explained.

"Ah," Crane said and sat down on a bench. Rosethorn sat down next to him and leaned against him. Resting her head on his shoulder, she stared up at the bright blue sky, splattered with small white clouds.

"We can't just _tell _them," Rosethorn said in frustration, sitting up straight to look at Crane.

"Maybe they should just… figure out," Crane said, a slow smile creeping across his features.

"Figure out?" Rosethorn echoed.

"Well, they'd know if they caught us kissing," Crane told her.

Rosethorn stared at him. 

"Catch us kissing?" Rosethorn asked raising her eyebrows, "I'd find that a bit embarrassing."

"Joking," he told her.

"Since when do you joke?" Rosethorn inquired.

"Since I met you," Crane said smiling softly.

"Stop it! You're flattering me," Rosethorn said and gave him a little shove.

In return he wrapped his arms around her, leaned down and kissed her.

Rosethorn pulled away, breathless, "I, must be going. Weeding to be done."

Crane nodded and they stood up and walked away in opposite directions.

***

"Boy! Come outside! You've had practically the whole day to laze, but now we're weeding!" Rosethorn yelled towards the house and waiting for Briar to come out.

Up on the roof Briar stood up hearing Rosethorn's call, "And she calls the morning practically the whole day."

He trotted down through Discipline Cottage and out into Rosethorn's garden. Briar kneeled down next to her and started weeding as well, making sure to only pluck out the real weeds and not flowers Rosethorn was growing there. 

Rosethorn, on the other hand, seemed almost lost in thought. She had a day dreaming expression on and twice she almost pulled up the wrong flower before she suddenly realized what she was doing and then pulled up a weed. Briar was very curiously watching her. What could it be, that it was taking Rosethorn, _Rosethorn's_, attention away from weeding? This had to be the first time Briar saw Rosethorn even _touch _a flower as if it were a weed. 

Finally, a few hours later, Rosethorn stood up and brushed her hands off. 

"Okay, Briar, you can run off now. But I want you to be here tonight around eleven to see the moon flowers bloom," Rosethorn told the boy as he scampered off, taking one last glance behind him as Rosethorn moved off to another part of the garden.

Briar ran straight to the roof, where he had seen the girls one by one go up. 

"Hey you skirts!" Briar said as he plopped down on the roof, watching Rosethorn weed as the sun sank lower in the mid afternoon sky.

"Skirts?" Tris echoed.

"Rosethorn was day dreaming!" Briar exclaimed.

"_Rosethorn_?" said three voices at once.

"Well," Daja said smugly, "I wonder who she was dreaming about…"

Sandry giggled and said nothing.

"I still can't believe… Rosethorn and Crane… and now she's day dreaming about him…" Tris was mumbling so no one could understand all she said.

Briar stared at the sky and yawned, "all that weeding is making me tired…"

"Speaking of which, I think it's dinner time," Sandry said and stood up.

Daja followed and Tris was about to go into the cottage when she saw Briar was still unmoving and staring at the sky.

"Theifboy?" Tris asked, nudging Briar with her foot, "dinner time…"

"What's that Coppercurls?" Briar asked stumbling to his feet.

"Dinner? You know, where you eat?" Tris reminded him.

"Yeah…" Briar said as he looked into her eyes.

"Then lets go…" Tris said slowly, looking into Briar eyes as well. For some reason her heart started pounding quicker and she could feel her face getting hot, she quickly looked away and scurried down into the cottage, leaving Briar standing there a bit confused.

***

At the table Daja, Sandry, and Tris were whispering excitedly and Briar was sitting there, lost in his own thoughts. Every once and a while he stuck in a comment or too. They were the only one's there, beside Lark, Rosethorn was still in her garden. 

Finally Lark asked, "What's up? You four have been talking about the same thing for the whole dinner."

Daja looked up quickly, "Nothing, nothing, nothing at all."

"Uh huh," Lark said and continued looking at them.

Sandry, being a bit braver, as Lark was her teacher announced, "Have you noticed anything, you know, unusual, between, er, Rosethorn and Crane?"

"Yes, I have, Rosethorn and Crane are in love, I'll not have you go and blabbing around about it though," Lark told them sternly the continued eating the tomato soup, "Oh yes, and I ask you, give them their privacy."

"Well," Tris said and Briar glanced at her.

***

Later, after the girls and Briar had gone to bed and Lark was sitting at the table doing some knitting, Rosethorn came in.

"You've been gone a while," Lark stated looking up from her knitting. 

"Yes, I went to Crane's greenhouse, he, Briar, and I are going to watch the moonflowers tonight," Rosethorn said walking into the kitchen and warming up some of the tomato soup.

When Rosethorn came back into the dining room Lark said, "Oh, that's nice," then looked up at Rosethorn to see her expression. 

She was smiling, Lark smiled back, "Crane's greenhouse eh?"

"Yes," Rosethorn said stretching the word a bit. She sat down at the table next to Lark. 

"The girls and Briar have figured out," Lark stated simply.

Rosethorn coughed, "What?"

"They're not stupid you know, if you don't want anyone to know, you ought to be a bit more private," Lark said, "Personally I think it's nice you two have finally gotten together."

A faint blush creeped up on her face, "Finally?"

"I'm not stupid either," Lark told her old friend, "and in case you didn't notice, Crane has been in love with you even before you died."

"This is a very 'teenage girl' conversation we're having," Rosethorn said grinning happily.

"It is, isn't it?" Lark asked, thinking of Briar and the girls.

Suddenly Crane burst in, and glanced at Rosethorn, then Lark.

Lark suddenly coughed and stood up, walking into the kitchen.

Rosethorn felt a tingle go down her spine when she saw him standing there, looking around the room, and being handsome.

Crane walked over to Rosethorn leaned down and gave her a quick kiss murmuring in her ear, "Hello love."

Rosethorn suddenly spied Lark peeping around the corner and glared, smiling at the same time though.

Lark quickly went back into the kitchen.

"You want me to watch the moon flowers with you?" He asked sitting down in the chair Lark had vacated. 

"Yes, and Briar too," Rosethorn said that smiled.

"Briar?" Crane echoed.

"We don't have to wake him up I suppose…" Rosethorn said mischievously. 

Lark the walked in with a basket of yarn as well. She had started to make a shape of some sort in the knitting.

She sat down across from Rosethorn. Crane glanced at her, so Rosethorn leaned over to whisper in his ear, "she knows, remember, whatever you want to say you can say it."

Crane nodded in understanding.

"No, no, Briar can come, he's quite responsible," Crane said.

"Alright," Rosethorn said.

Lark yawned, "I'm off to bed. See you tomorrow morning."

She walked off.

Crane glanced at Rosethorn, "Well, we have a few hours until we wake Briar to see the flowers."

Rosethorn nodded, "Let's go outside now and wait for them to start opening."

"All right, my love."

***

Briar woke with a start. He looked at his wind up watch sitting on the bedside table. Midnight. Midnight? Rosethorn was going to wake him up at 11. Briar peered out his window. He could just make out two shapes sitting in the dirt. The two figures looked asleep.

He hurriedly got dressed and quietly ran outside. Crane was sitting cross-legged, his head drooped forward, Rosethorn was curled up, her head in his lap, they had indeed fallen asleep. 

"Crane? Rosethorn?" Briar asked tentatively. There was no response.

"Crane? Rosethorn?" He said, this time louder. Crane's head jerked up and he turned his head to see who had said his name.

"Oh, you," he looked back at the flowers which we just started to open. Briar came over and sat on the other side of Crane.

Crane was gently shaking Rosethorn's shoulder, "Rosethorn? Rosethorn? Love?"

Rosethorn stirred a bit and then mumbled something that sounded like, "Mmm  mmm mm."

"What was that?" Crane asked.

"Leave me alone," she said.

"The flowers are starting to bloom," he told her.

"What?!" Immediately she sat up, looked at Crane, smiled sleepily, and then looked back at the flowers.

"Lovely night," Crane said, putting his arm around Rosethorn's shoulder. Briar happened to have his back turned at the moment; he was staring in wonder at the Moonflowers, which were wide open and shining.

"Why is Crane here?" Briar asked staring at Crane. 

"I brought him along. He wanted to see the Moonflowers tonight too," Rosethorn stated simply as she yawned, watching the flowers.

"Oh," Briar said and gently touched a flower.

In the darkness he could see a few more figures staring in awe at the flowers, which only bloomed on a full moon once a year. They were bright white, even whiter with the moon light on their petals, and they truly were an awesome sight. 

Crane couldn't help but think they were almost as pretty as Rosethorn, except Rosethorn, her beauty; it just couldn't be compared to anything. 

Briar, on the other hand, was thinking about how he had never seen anything so beautiful in all his life and was wishing there was a way to preserve the moment. To think, he'd have to wait for a whole year until he got to see them again.

Rosethorn, who had just decided to plant the Moonflowers in her garden, had seen them before. Still though, they always managed to take her breath away with their silent grace and beauty. She yawned and leaned against Crane, who put his arm around her waist. To anyone who didn't know them they looked like a perfectly happy couple who had been with each other for a while and had known each other longer then before that and would think, _Oh how sweet_.

To someone who did know them, they would think, _Man, it must be getting late. I could swear I see Crane and Rosethorn leaning on each other. My mind is playing tricks on me_, and then wander off to bed. A few people, did, actually. Frostpine and Niko were two of these people but they decided to hang around a little longer and see how long they could watch the Moonflowers before they fell asleep on their feet.

***

"Ah!" Sandry jumped up suddenly and held her head, "It just suddenly registered. Rosethorn, and Crane. _Rosethorn _and _Crane_. In love."

"You better get used to it, who knows, maybe they'll get married!" Daja said shrugging.

"Can you do that?" Briar wondered.

Tris shrugged and buried herself in her book, although Briar noticed her eyes weren't moving across the pages. 

"Oi, Coppercurls, whatcha thinking about?" Briar asked, nudging her.

Tris looked up at him, _Lets see, I'm thinking about marriage, love, and for some weird reason, you! _But Tris didn't say that, instead she said, "nothing much."

"Ah," Briar replied and for once he couldn't think of anything else to say.

***

A young, inexperienced student at Wind Circle was in the chemical building doing some tests late at night. The only other person there was Rosethorn, she was doing some chemical reaction tests on the Roscra. 

Now, this chemical building was about the size of five town houses. It was two or three stories high and packed full of chemicals, some of which were highly flammable. But that didn't matter, everyone was very careful when handling those chemicals. This building was also attached to one or two more buildings.

So, back to the student. He was doing a test with one of these flammable chemicals. He walked over to a table and accidentally dropped this flammable chemical into a large basin flammable powder. This now explosive powder flew all over the room and immediately the student was encompassed in flames, as well as the whole room. It spread quickly through the building. The young student jumped out the window, for the room he was in was on the first floor and ran screaming FIRE!

A large crowd quickly gather, and the water mages all started murmuring spells to put out the fire, but instead the fire grew. A tall figure was pushing through the crowd and behind the tall figure was a not so tall figure. 

"Rosethorn's in there!" Crane shouted at the water mages, almost reaching the state of panic.

"Go in there and get her!" Lark demanded of the mages.

"We can't. The fire started on the first level and we can't get through until we put out the flames," a mage explained.

The flames had, indeed, reached the top level, which Rosethorn happened to be on. Now reaching that state of panic, Crane pushed away the water mages and ran into the burning building.

"Crane!" Lark shouted, but it was too late.


	9. Marry Me

A/N: We didn't say how many reviews we wanted, cuz we never get it up at that amount anyway, sooo… ya get the picture. Oh, and 8 is just being weird for some reason, sorry if it was harder to read.

Crane pushed through the flames, he could feel everlasting, immense heat pushing in at him from all sides. He made his way to the stairwell, he took a gasping breath, their wasn't as much fire in there. He sat down a moment to rest. 

_Rosethorn, where was she? _Crane thought hurriedly, _the top floor, yes, that was it!_

He ran up the rest of the steps to the top floor, bursting into the chemical testing room that he knew Rosethorn would be in if she were testing the Roscra, flames engulfed the room. 

He looked wildly around the room, seeing nothing but fire and destruction. Then he heard a moan and spied her underneath the table covered in soot, her clothes burned, half unconscious.

He hurried to her and seeing that she wouldn't be able to walk lifted her up in his arms and carried her out of the room. 

In the stairwell he sat her down and gradually her ragged breathing became smoother. She was still unconscious though. He picked her up again and carried her back into the flaming first floor. 

Bursting out of the building the crowd cheered, he took her 10 yards away from the building and laid her on the cool grass. 

Kneeling he brushed her hair away from her face, "Rosethorn? Rosethorn, my love," he whispered to her so softly no one else could hear.

Rosethorn blinked slowly, then coughed, "Crane?"

"I'm here," he said, his eyes soft and full of love and concern.

She sat up slowly and Crane put his arms around her, leaning in kiss her. He then pulled her to her feet, still kissing her. 

The whole crowd, those that knew Rosethorn, expected her to shove him away and use her temper on him, so they were quite surprised when in turn she put her arms around him and leaned in closer to him.

Standing at the front of the crowd Lark put her hands over Briar's eyes. 

"Hey!" he said in protest, "I wasn't looking anyway."

When they finished kissing Rosethorn leaned against Crane, head resting on his chest. Lark pushed her way out of the stunned crowd, "Rosie!"

Briar was close behind Lark. Rosethorn turned to face them, a smile on her face. 

"Your okay?" Lark asked.

"Apparently," Rosethorn told her friend, "if I can kiss someone, I _must _be okay."

Crane stood next to Rosethorn, uneasily being quiet. 

Turning her head to look up at him she whispered, "I thought you were joking."

"What?" He raised his eyebrows.

"You said you were joking when you said that we could let everyone catch us kissing," Rosethorn told him, a smile playing on her lips.

"Oh yes, that. I was joking," he told her.

"Well, everyone knows now," she stated.

Everyone was watching Crane and Rosethorn, except of course, the water mages who were still busily stopping the flames in the burning building. 

"Lets go," Crane said, "and get cleaned up."

"I'll take her to Discipline Cottage," Lark told Crane, who nodded.

Rosethorn glared at the crowd, "you _all _have things to do. Go do them!"

They slowly dispersed, many with a few last glances over their shoulders at Rosethorn, Crane, and Lark. Soon only Briar and the girls were left standing there.

"I meant you too!" Rosethorn said and they ran off to Discipline, "and Lark, I can take myself to Discipline."

"No you can't!" Lark and Crane said together.

Rosethorn shrugged and started walking off. Lark and Crane hurried after her. As Crane stepped up next to her, she slid her hand in his hand. Once they got to the door to Discipline Crane kissed Rosethorn once more and then left to get changed.

"So," Lark said as she and Rosethorn walked through the cottage to Rosethorn's room. 

Rosethorn smiled, "I guess there's no need to tell everyone."

"No need," Lark agreed as Rosethorn went into her room to get changed and wash up.

***

There was a knock on the door of Discipline Cottage and Crane stepped in. He was wearing a clean robe and had evidently taken a shower. He looked at Briar and the girls seated at the table, eating breakfast. 

"Is Rosethorn here?" he asked.

"Yes, in her workroom," Briar said, pushing a spoon full of mushy oatmeal into his mouth.

Crane nodded and walked off to Rosethorn's workroom. He disappeared behind the door.

Briar and the girls all stared at the door for a moment before Tris giggled. She couldn't help herself. Briar, Sandry, and Daja and looked at her. Tris stared back.

"What?" she asked. 

They just shook their heads and went back to their breakfast, except Briar. Briar stared at Tris a moment longer before he shook his head and went back to his oatmeal. Tris, who was already back to her oatmeal, didn't notice.

_And now back to Rosethorn's workroom…_

"Someone broke into my greenhouse," Crane said after he kissed Rosethorn and then sat down in a chair. 

"Why?" Rosethorn asked as she closed a notebook she had been scribbling rapidly in.

"We don't know. Nothing was stolen and nothing was broken into. Its as if, the person broke in, looked around, and left."

Rosethorn put down her pen and closed her notebook, "maybe that's what they were there for. To look around."

"Maybe. I bet they used the commotion to get in without anyone noticing," Crane sighed.

"You should be more careful," Rosethorn suggested.

"More careful? As if I wasn't careful in the first place…" Crane replied, but a smile playing across his lips proved that he was not being sarcastic.

"Really?" Rosethorn asked, astonished, "you actually put protection spells on your greenhouse?"

"Yes, I do. I suppose that means _you _do as well?" Crane demanded.

"Of course," she retorted. 

They were both silent for a moment before Crane spoke up again. He had been acting a little nervous the whole time.

"Would you like to go for a walk?" Crane inquired.

"I'd love to," Rosethorn said, grateful to get away from her recording things about the Roscra. 

They stood and walked off. They actually left Wind Circle and went to the place where they watched the Roscra for a pollinator. The field was still covered in Roscras, but a few were wilting already. Apparently they were a one season flower. 

Rosethorn sighed as she stared at the wild beauty and peacefulness of the forest. Crane stared dreamily about the field, hands in his pockets, fidgeting. 

Suddenly a herd of deer burst into the field, fleeing, white tails high. They dashed almost straight at Crane and Rosethorn before veering away suddenly. About ten feet behind the main herd was a smaller deer, and it was limping as it ran, and it seemed almost crazy with terror.

Then, apparently out of thin air, a cougar leaped up from the grasses and flowers with a vicious snarl and landed on the small deer's back, snapping the neck with a fatal crack. 

"Oh my god!" Rosethorn exclaimed her face pale; as she watched the cougar carry off its prey.

Crane raised one of his eyebrows, his face pale as well, "That was quite, interesting."

Rosethorn said nothing, took a breath as though she was going to say something, then let it out again. 

"Come, my beloved, let us walk a different way," Crane said putting an arm around her waist and steering her off in a different direction. In return she rested her head on his shoulder.

"Maybe the forest isn't as peaceful as I thought it was," Rosethorn said thoughtfully.

Soon they game to a little creek. 

"This is the creek we all jumped in when the bees came after us," Crane remarked.

"And the mud bank we covered ourselves with mud in," Rosethorn said remembering.

"Should we cross?" Crane asked, looking upstream and downstream for a bridge, and seeing one.

"Lets," replied Rosethorn, and they walked upstream the bank of the creek until they came to a beautiful arched stone bridge.

Crane suddenly paused as they stood in the center of the bridge and turned to face her.

"Rosethorn, I love you, more deeply than I ever thought possible," he said.

"And I the same," Rosethorn replied, a small smile playing about her lips.

"So that's why I'm asking you, will you marry me?" Crane asked, "I'm not sure that Dedicates even can marry, but I'm asking you anyway because that's what I truly want to do, to live out the rest of my days with you, and I want you to know that."

  



	10. Dedicate and Dedicate?

A/N: Hee, hee, hee, two cliffhangers in a row. Well if you're like me then you'll just skip over this boring author's note and get to the good stuff.

Crane pulled a small box out of his pocket; he opened it up and inside was a finely made ring of gold in the shape of a circlet of leaves.

Rosethorn paused a moment her thoughts whizzing over what Crane had just asked and she found that she felt inexplicably happy, of course she wanted to marry him, but after all this was a big decision. 

"Yes," she answered, "Yes, I would love to marry you." 

She was smiling, happiness radiated off her. Crane was the same. He leaned down and kissed her deeply; wrapping his arms around her and holding her tightly as though this was the last time they'd ever kiss or see each other.

They broke apart as the rays of the sun shone down from above them. Crane slipped the ring onto Rosethorn's ring finger and they stood there staring blissfully into each other's eyes.

***

Rosethorn walked into Discipline Cottage, and no matter how hard she tried she could not stop smiling. They had both agreed not to tell anyone until they had spoken with Honored Moonstream. 

She saw Lark sitting at the table weaving. Lark glanced up and Rosethorn slipped her hand into her pocket. Lark glanced at the pocket suspiciously then at Rosethorn's grinning face. Rosethorn bit her lip and glanced around, then walked into the kitchen for lunch.

Crane had something he needed to do in his workroom then he'd come back to get Rosethorn and go talk to Moonstream.

As she walked back into the dining room carrying a bowl of soup she saw Tris walk in promptly and sit down and open her book. Rosethorn stole a glance at the cover. _Old Scriptures and Stories of Winding Circle._

She then sat down across to Lark placing her bowl in front of herself. Lark gave her a questioning look and Rosethorn glanced at Tris. Lark understood and kept quiet.

Tris glanced up feeling Lark and Rosethorn's eyes upon her. She looked back at her book then glanced up again.

"Should I leave?" Tris asked, "I mean if there's something private you want to talk about…"

Tris decided that the answer was yes and walked off.

"Well?" Lark asked propping her elbows up on the table and looking at Rosethorn, "what happened? Something's up, I can tell by the way your acting."

Rosethorn glanced around and grinned, "He asked me to marry him."

"And you said?" Lark asked.

"Yes," Rosethorn told her friend, a thrill of happiness running through her at the thought, "but we're not sure about the whole dedicates getting married thing. We're going to speak to Moonstream about it after lunch. Crane should be here any minute now."

Just then Crane burst in and walked over to Rosethorn to lean down and give her a quick kiss before sitting down next to her.

He took a quick glance at Lark before whispering in Rosethorn's ear, "You told her didn't you? I thought we decided not to tell anyone until we spoke with Moonstream."

Rosethorn shrugged before whispering back, "It slipped out."

Crane nodded as if he didn't quite believe her, but the small smile was on his face told Rosethorn he wasn't really angry. Rosethorn cleared her place then motioned for Crane to stand up so they could leave.

Just as they were about to walk out the door Lark stood up too, "Wait, if you're going to talk to Moonstream then I'm coming."

Rosethorn glanced at Crane before nodded to her friend. Lark followed behind them as they walked down the path to where Moonstream was. Just as they reached the door Rosethorn slipped her hand into Crane's. He squeezed it, telling her without words it would be all right. 

They knocked on the door and Moonstream appeared. She took one look at their worried faces and let them in. 

"What's going on?" she asked.

Crane shifted uncomfortably, "Rosethorn and I wish to be married, is it, can we, get married?"

Moonstream frowned in thought, and then said, "I'm not entirely sure. My first impression is that since you are dedicated to the temple, you wouldn't be able to dedicate yourself to something, or in this case, someone, else. But I can look into it, it could happen. Perhaps it's happened before. I'll check it out for you."

Moonstream led them out of the room and to the library. As she shifted through novels she muttered, "I know it's here somewhere, but it seems not to be here."

"What's it called?" asked Lark, scanning the shelves.

"Old Scriptures and Stories of Winding Circle," Moonstream said and Rosethorn smiled.

"Tris is reading it," Rosethorn said and made towards the door.

"Tris?" inquired Moonstream, "are you sure?"

"Oh yes, I saw her reading it a few minutes ago," Rosethorn said and then continued towards the door. The rest of them followed.

Rosethorn stepped into Discipline Cottage and looked around. Tris was seated at the table, her nose nearly touching the pages of the book she was reading. It was, Moonstream could see, indeed the book they needed. Tris didn't notice them until Moonstream cleared her throat.

"Yes?" she asked, closing the book.

"May we borrow that book?" Moonstream asked, waving her hand towards it.

"Oh yes of course," Tris said, handing them it, then glanced curiously at Crane, Lark, and Rosethorn, "why?"

"We need to look something up in it," Moonstream paused, "unless of course, you know it. You seem to be almost done."

"I probably do, I've been trying very hard to remember most of what's in there. Its very interesting," Tris nodded rapidly.

"Alright then," Moonstream smiled and sat down at the table.

"What do you need to know?" Tris asked.

Crane stepped forward, "Does it say anything about, perhaps two Dedicates ever getting married before?"

Tris narrowed her eyes suspiciously before replying, "Um… I think so. It said something about these two dedicates asking the Gods about marriage, or maybe it was something else. Let me check. I think it was in chapter twelve."

There was a rustling of pages and Tris flipped towards Chapter Twelve. Rosethorn and Crane waited anxiously for the answer. There was a sharp, "Ah hah!" as Tris found the right page.

"Yes, it says here, 'in year… I can't tell… two dedicates asked the Gods by long ritual and praying if they could get married, because it is not normally aloud. But these two were deeply in love"- Rosethorn and Crane glanced at each other-"so they were determined. The Gods gave their answer through an omen. The Gods let them get married," Tris finished reading it and looked up at the four standing there.

Moonstream nodded thoughtfully, "sounds like good news." Then she looked at Rosethorn and Crane, "do you want to ask the Gods? Are you willing to try anything? They might say no, you know."

Tris stared. So this was what was it was all about. Crane and Rosethorn wanted to get married.

"We'll try," Rosethorn told Moonstream glancing at Crane. Tris was grinning mischievously and glancing around the room. 

"I gotta go," she said quickly and hurried up the stairs and to the roof.

***

"You guys! Guess what?" Tris said plopping herself down next to Briar.

"What?" Briar asked with a yawn, the warm sun had the effect of making him sleepy.

"Okay, well I was reading my book"- 

"Of course."

Tris glared at Sandry, "I was reading my book and then Moonstream, Lark, Crane and Rosethorn all came in."

"I was wondering where Lark was!" Sandry interrupted again.

"Well they asked me to read this part out of the book I was reading, the stories in here are true you know, here, I'll read it out loud to you again. 

"In year… whatever, the writing is blurred, two dedicates asked the Gods by long ritual and praying if they could get married, because it is not normally aloud. But these two were deeply in love so they were determined. The Gods gave their answer through an omen. The Gods let them get married," Tris looked at them to see their expressions, "Well?"

"So what does that have to do with anything?" Briar asked.

Tris scoffed, "You are so thick!"

Daja was grinning, "They want to get married!"

Briar looked horrified, "Rosethorn? I mean, married?"

"Yes, Theifboy, if the gods let them, is there even a brain in your head?" she knocked on the top of his head.

"Ow, stop it!" Briar said and grabbed her hand, intending to push her hand away, but instead held it a little longer then he should have. Tris looked up at him and their eyes met for a second before Briar let go of Tris's hand and looked away.

***

"This ritual is ancient!" Moonstream said flipping through pages in an old book that also contained information of the ritual. Suddenly three pages fell out, crumbling into dust as they hit the floor.

"I think ancient describes that book, as well as cool describes the North Pole," Niko said with a chuckle. 

"Well, I think I've found out everything included in the ritual, Niko, I'll go explain, you can go back to your work now," Moonstream said with a wave of her hand.

***

Rosethorn glanced at Crane. They were both wearing robes made of silk, green for Rosethorn and yellow for Crane. They were standing facing the closed doors to a large temple that served as the main worship temple for the four elemental gods, Air, Earth, Fire, and Water. Moonstream was standing farther back from the temple watching the horizon.

They would enter would enter the temple at the crack of dawn, inside they would perform the ritual would last all day, until the sunset.

Breaking the still silence of the early morning a bird began chirping and after it a few more. 

Crane glanced at the place where the sun would come up. Bright rays of light shone, but the sun it self was still hiding.

Suddenly the first sliver of the sun appeared. Moonstream nodded to them and they pushed open the doors and entered the temple.

**A/N: Sorry for taking so long. School started and homework and all that whatnot. We'll start to speed it up.**


	11. No

A/N: Wow! Two chapters in one week!! You gotta use your imagination a bit this time, we didn't feel like typing this part. *scoffs* The lazy bums.

"And now… we wait," Crane said as they left the Temple.

"That was the most amazing thing I've ever done in my entire life," Rosethorn said, smelling strongly of incense.

She leaned on Crane as they walked, yawning. The sun had already set and she was exhausted. Crane breathed in deeply and ran his fingers through Rosethorn's hair.

"You smell nice," he murmured, half asleep.

"I wonder why," Rosethorn said, and then added, "you smell the same."

"Is that a compliment?" Crane inquired.

"Maybe," Rosethorn replied with a smile.

Suddenly they found themselves in front of Discipline Cottage. Rosethorn pushed open the door and they stumbled in. She headed straight for her bedroom.

"Good night," she mumbled to Crane and then flopped down on her bed into a dead sleep.

***

"Good morning!" Rosethorn said cheerfully as she walked into the dining room. 

Briar and the girls sat at the table playing cards. Briar groaned.

"My one day vacation is over!" he said and threw his cards on the table, "what do I have to do today?"

"Weed the garden," she said, "without me."

Briar stared her, his eyes wide. Rosethorn grinned.

"Kidding."

There was a loud rumble from somewhere. Rosethorn glanced around before realizing it was her stomach. Then she doubled over, clutching her it.

"I am FAMISHED!" she said and sat down in a chair. 

Lark put a steaming plate of hash browns, eggs, and bacon in front of her. Rosethorn glared at the plate and growled, "why aren't you aloud to eat during any of these rituals?" 

"Oh its just one of those things," Lark said as Rosethorn began to eat, "you fast during a ritual, you use an umbrella when it rains!"

Rosethorn stared at her, ""where did that come from?"

Lark shrugged, "Just popped out."

"Speaking of rain…" Tris said and glanced out the window at the clouding sky.

Later that day….

Music floated around the house, apparently coming from Tris's room. 

"I'm only happy when it's complicated, I'm only happy when it rains!"

Rosethorn pushed back her stool and stood up from her workbench storming to Tris's room from her workroom.

"What is that atrocious music?!" She asked standing in the doorway.

Tris looked up, she had been lying on her bed reading a book, and a glowing orb was the source of the music. 

She answered shyly, "Um, just some music, I found it in the attic, I think its Lark's."

Rosethorn mumbled under her breath, "Everything in that attic seems to be Lark's old stuff."

"Wanna hear the messed-up version?" she asked and began to sing without waiting for the answer, "I'm happy when I'm constipated, I'm only happy when it pains!"

Rosethorn sighed, "You are one weird girl Tris."

She then turned and said softly, "Don't know why Briar likes you."

Tris though had gone back to her book and of course didn't hear. She did hear the front door open though and Rosethorn say, "Why hello Crane."

And, "Hello Love."

And then some kissing noises, Tris cupped her hand over the ball and the music became a little louder.

That Evening…

Rosethorn sat in her bedroom waiting for Crane to come back; he had to do some caring for his plants.

Suddenly a Briar's head appeared in the doorway.

"Hello Rosethorn," it said brightly.

She let out a yelp, "Great merciful Mila!"

The head floated over to hover next to her, "What's wrong?"

"Where's your body?" she demanded.

Briar's head looked down and put on an expression of surprise, "huh! Its not there! What do ya know?"

Rosethorn glared at him.

"Oh yeah, I remember, I cut it off a few hours ago! Too much of a bother you know, lugging all that around, so much easier being a head!" Briar explained.

A book suddenly floated up from her table and the pages started flipping as if being turned. Realization dawned on Rosethorn and she grabbed at the air under Briar's head. Her hand contacted with invisible flesh and Briar's head yelped. 

"Briar. You are the worst liar I know. Now take off that invisibility cloak right away!" Rosethorn demanded.

"Aw shucks Rosethorn! Do I have to?" Briar's head asked and then his body appeared, holding a silvery cloak.

"That's better. You think I've had a nice day?" Rosethorn demanded. 

Briar looked uneasy.

"I've been sitting here, waiting here for an omen from the Gods! First Tris's music, and now you're invisibility cloak, what next?!" Rosethorn demanded, losing control.

"You're getting an omen? Oh cool!" Briar said then jumped as a little metal thing flopped into the room, moving as if its muscles couldn't work right, or as if it was having a spasm.

Daja appeared in the doorway about the same time as an owl flew in and perched on the windowsill. Daja looked at the owl. The owl looked at Daja. Then the owl swooped down and picked the metal worm up in its beak and swallowed it. It then flew over and landed on Rosethorn's bed.

Daja gasped, "Mr. Owl ate my metal worm!" 

A/N: Mr. Owl ate my metal worm spells the same thing backwards! *Cackles gleefully*

"Mr. Owl?" Rosethorn asked questioningly.

"He's Frostpine's pet owl he raised from a chick, they're bonded!" Daja said eyes wide as suddenly the owl fell to the floor choking.

Daja ran over to it and him up. She shoved it towards Rosethorn, "Do SOMETHING!"

The owl began twitching and Rosethorn took it and studied it carefully. Suddenly it gave a heaving gasp and then went limp in Rosethorn's hand.

Daja, now totally hysterical yelled out, "Mr. Owl's DEAD!"

Rosethorn checked Mr. Owl's pulse then nodded slowly and shoved the bird back at Daja.

She yelped and dropped it, "I can't touch it, it's dead."

Rosethorn sighed, "Daja, number calm down, number two, a dead bird cannot hurt you, number three, I suggest you take the bird back to Frostpine and explain what happened."

Daja nodded solemnly and slowly picked up the dead owl then holding it as far away from her as she could she walked out of the cottage and back to the black-smith. 

Rosethorn moaned and put her head in her hands, "This day is not going well."

Briar quietly snuck out figuring Rosethorn wanted to be alone.

Dinner Time…

Rosethorn, Lark, Briar, and the girls all sat eating dinner. Briar and the girls chatted happily while Lark and Rosethorn ate silently, each lost in their own thoughts.

A heavy rain fell outside pattering against the windows. Suddenly their was a loud crash of thunder and the sky outside lit up. They all ran to the door and opened it to look outside.

Another bolt of lightning came zooming down split in two and hit Rosethorn's garden. The other half hit somewhere else. Rosethorn eyes widened. 

"My garden!" she gasped clasping her hand over her mouth as Moonstream came running up, Crane behind her.

"Are you alright, I saw the lightning hit over here somewhere," Moonstream glanced at the charred ruins of Rosethorn's garden. Crane looked at it too, "The other bolt hit my greenhouse."

Moonstream nodded and thoughtful look came into her eye and she mumbled, "A lightning bolt splits in two, one half hits Rosethorn's garden, the other half hits Crane's greenhouse."

She looked at Crane and Rosethorn, "I think that was the omen."

"And what does it mean," Crane asked although he already knew the answer.

"No."

A/N: *cackles evilly again* A cliffhanger! Next chapter is the last one, or there might be one more.


	12. In The Realms Of The Gods

A/N: Um, wait, why did I even put a/n, there's nothing we need to say. So why are we blabbing? Well let's just start the story!

"No?" Rosethorn's voice was barely above a whisper.

Moonstream nodded.

"Are you sure?" Crane asked, his face crestfallen.

Once again Moonstream nodded.

Crane looked at Rosethorn, who bit her lip uncertainly.

"Oh." Rosethorn said. 

Lark, Briar, and the girls sat staring at their dinner in an uncomfortable silence.

"I think, I think I'll go to bed," Rosethorn said and walked toward her room. 

"Wait," Crane said taking her hand.

Rosethorn stopped and looked up at him, then she glanced at everyone then leaned up to whisper in his ear. Crane nodded and Rosethorn pulled him into her bedroom and shut the door.

Urgent hushed whispers could be heard from the room but no one could make out what they were saying. 

"No! Are you crazy!?" Crane's voice floated under the door.

Briar and the girls exchanged glances.

"Well, I'd best be going," Moonstream said and quietly slipped out the door.

Lark looked at Briar and the girls, "It's late, go to bed."

Mumbling all four slouched off to bed.

_Zoom to bedroom…_

"They don't understand!" Rosethorn hissed in a whisper.

"You're talking about the gods Rosethorn! Gods!" Crane hissed back, "They could kill us!"

"So? At least then we'd be together!" Rosethorn said tears in her eyes.

Crane sighed then wrapped his arms around Rosethorn running his hands through her hair murmuring softly, "Rosethorn, I want more than anything else to marry you, but I think visiting the gods is going a bit too far."

"Fine," Rosethorn said, but her eyes told a different story. If Crane had been looking at them he would have noticed, but he wasn't.

"Good night love," he said leaning down to kiss her, "We'll figure things out in the morning.

***

The sun was barely above the horizon when Rosethorn was standing deep in her garden surrounding by plants in a secret little spot. She was standing in a magic circle chanting words of some ancient spell.

Suddenly there was the crack of a stick breaking, Rosethorn spun around to see Crane standing there.

"How did you- what are you doing here?" she demanded, hands on her hips.

"I should ask the same of you," Crane replied with a smile.

"How did you know I would be here?" Rosethorn was clearly very confused.

"You honestly thought I wouldn't realize what you were up to?" Crane asked. 

"What am I up to?" Rosethorn asked, trying at the last moment to make up an excuse.

Crane sighed, "Rosethorn, dear, there are only four days in the year when you can visit the gods. Midsummer is one of them."

Crane paused, then added, "Happy Birthday."

"Thank you," she said, then looked at him, "well?"

"I'm coming with you," he stated.

"No you're not!" she retorted.

"You really think I'm going to stand here and let you go visit the gods, _by you self_? What happens if you get killed and I never see you again? At least if I go with you, we'd be dead together."

Rosethorn opened her mouth to say something, then closed and opened the magic circle to let him in, then closed it behind him.

"You could get killed too," she pointed out.

"Yes, I know," he said, lighting candles for the spell that would take them to the Realms of the Gods, "but I would rather be dead with you then alive without you."

Rosethorn turned and looked up at him, holding some holy water in her hands, "Same here."

"Rosethorn, I love you, more then can be put to words," Crane said, "and although I still think we'd be better off alive, there is _no way _I'm letting you do this alone." 

Rosethorn smiled half-heartedly, "I know, in my heart I knew you'd come. And I shouldn't be glad that you're coming as well, but I am. Ready?"

Crane nodded and together they spoke the last words of the spell and a few seconds after they shimmered and disappeared.

***

Briar stormed in. It was quite a few hours after breakfast, and the day was rapidly getting hotter.

"Where's Rosethorn?" he demanded. 

The girls and Lark all looked at him in surprise.

"Isn't she weeding in her garden?" Daja asked.

"I thought she was taking a walk with Crane, she was up earlier then any of us," Lark said.

"No, I've been looking everywhere for her all morning. But the thing is the connection I have with her, it's like 'error, please try again!'" Briar said, "and then it… it just stops!"

Lark looked up, "Error? What connection?" 

"Rosethorn tied some of her magic to me, ages ago. I can follow it to her, and she can follow it to me," Briar said.   

"Ah, a two way connection. Most teachers and students have those," Lark said and glanced at Sandry.

Osprey burst in, "Has anyone seen Crane lately? I know he's over here a lot."

Everyone shook there heads.

"Rosethorn and Crane are _both _missing?" Briar asked, looking horrified.

"They're probably on a walk," Lark said again.

"Error! Error, please try again!!" was all Briar could say. 

"Exactly!" Osprey said, pointing at Briar.

"Maybe they're dead!" Daja suggested, looking horrified.

There was a moan from Tris, "I knew I shouldn't have lent Rosethorn Shakespeare's Romeo and Juliet! They've killed themselves and they got the idea from my book, so it's all my fault!" 

"Tris, calm down. If they were dead, the connection wouldn't just have an error in it, it would be gone," Lark explained, "I have a connection to Rosethorn too, and it has gone all weird."

"I'm going to go check her garden again," Briar said and left, leaving everyone very puzzled.

He touched the plants and asked them were Rosethorn was and they all pointed him in one direction, but as soon as he went there, the plants pointed him in a new direction, back towards a spot that seemed to never be there.

"Argh! Rosethorn must have spelled the cursed thing!" he said in frustration, then looked towards the spot out of the corner of his eye and edged towards it. 

Suddenly he found himself pushed through some large plants and in a small cleared area of plain dirt. In the center was a shining, waving magic circle. No one was in it. Briar studied the candles and magic used in it. Crane and Rosethorn's magics were both present. Briar paled. They had gone to the Realms of the Gods.

***

All four elementals stood in a circle in the center of the elemental realm.

"I think we should have let them get married, they're so disappointed now," Air said in a female whispery voice.

Fire crackled some, twitched, and then cackled, "No!" *twitch twitch* "They dedicated themselves to us! Not to each other!"

"Then again we let two dedicates get married not so long ago," Water said calmly, in an oily, slippery voice, as he sat twirling a shell with his fingers. 

A/N: He talks kind of like Snape, except Water is nice not mean.

"Actually they're on their way now," Earth said sprouting some leaves out of her head.

Rosethorn and Crane appeared in the center of the meeting place which looked king of like a small Roman Amphitheater. 

"Rosethorn and Crane of Winding Circle!" Fire said slyly flames shooting away from him.

Crane backed away from Fire and bumped into Earth who smiled down at him.

"Welcome!" She said spreading her arms, "Don't bother telling us what you're here for, we already know, you've come to ask us personally if you can marry!" Glancing at the other elements she turned back to Crane and Rosethorn, "and if it was my discision alone I would have let you get married, but all four of us have to agree." 

Glaring at Fire, Water, and Air she said, "I don't see why they can't get married while those other two could!"

"That was different, besides they both worshipped me!" Fire said twitching, "I tried to kill her, which would have solved the problem, but no, YOU," he pointed at Water, "Had to interfere," he pointed at Air, "and you let Crane save her! If you'd just helped me build up my flames a bit more all our problems would be gone!"

Rosethorn looked shocked at this speech by Fire. Air blew over to them and looked at Fire, "Now, now Fire, calm your sparks."

"I think it should be only Air and I decisions," Earth said, "after all they're our dedicates."

"That does not matter, we all need to agree," Water said still twirling the shell.

"I say let them get married!!" Earth said spreading her arms as little vines leaped out of them landing on the dirt floor of the amphitheater and taking root.

"No!" Fire roared.

Air looked at Fire, "Don't you think… you might want to at least… to give them a chance?"

Fire glared at Wind, then looked at Crane and Rosethorn, eyes red and flaming, like the rest of him, "You will not neglect your duties to your temples, will you?"

"Absolutely not," Crane replied, "our duties are very important to us."

Water turned from his thoughts, "All they want is marriage, its not that big of a deal. Some people pray to us asking for money or power, marriage can only bring good."

"Humph," was all Fire could say, although his voice crackled more then usual when he said it, "Then let them get married, and we shall see… Yes, we shall see…" He smiled evilly at Crane and Rosethorn. 

"Right then," Earth said cheerfully, "we put you on probation for a year. You can go home now. And sorry about your gardens, it was Fire's idea. Rather brilliant don't you think?"

"Oh yes," Rosethorn said grimacing as she remember the part of her garden that was charred black from the lightening. 

Suddenly they appeared back in the circle. Lark, Briar, Osprey, Frostpine, Niko, and the girls all stood there waiting.

"Rosethorn!" Lark gasped astonished and disbelieving.

"Your alive." Briar stated. 

"And you'd be happier if I were dead?" Rosethorn said sarcastically.

"Well, actually you see…" Briar trailed off.

Rosethorn waved her hand the circle disappeared.

"You know this is the third time you've almost died," Lark said walking next to Rosethorn.

***

Crane and Rosethorn stood in the garden as the last rays of sunshine peeked through the trees.

"Crane, I love you, and when this year is over, and if they," Rosethorn paused, "if they say no again, it doesn't matter, we don't need to be married to show our love for each other."

Crane nodded, "I love you too."

Rosethorn suddenly giggled, "I never knew you could be so sentimental until I fell in love with you."

Crane smiled blushing slightly, then opened his mouth as if to say something in return, then closed it apparently deciding on something better. 

He leaned down and kissed her passionately. 


	13. Happy Anniversary

A/N: Epilogue! The end… *sighs* sort of sad… ya know, but your probably not reading this, you want to get to the story rather than read boring author notes so I don't even know why I keep typing. Why don't I stop? My fingers keep moving, I think I'm cursed, how long will this author's note be. Ack! Tell my sister to press the un bold button and the enter button! Quick! Quick! 

Rosethorn sat at the table smiling her to her self. She fingered the ring on her finger thinking of the words engraved on the inside. Meus Amo Diligo. My Love Forever. 

Today was their anniversary. They were having a party this afternoon. Crane had left early this morning to go to place that was several hours away to get some bulbs and stuff. 

Rosethorn's room had been enlarged, it was about two times as big as it had been.

Lark popped her head in.

"Good morning Rosethorn!" Lark said.

"Good morning Lark!" Rosethorn said.

Lark came in at sat down at the table across from Rosethorn, "Happy anniversary."

Rosethorn smiled, "Yes, it's already been three years, how this time has whipped by."

Lark nodded, "It's seems like just yesterday Briar and the girls were snooping around and spying on you and Crane as you fell in love."

"They spied on me, I mean us?!" Rosethorn asked.

Lark nodded and Rosethorn looked indignant.

Standing up Rosethorn smiled, "Well I'm going into my workroom to put the finishing touches on my, on my present for him."

"All right then," Lark said standing too, "I'll see you later this afternoon."

Rosethorn walked to her workroom and took a very small shakkan off the window shelf.

It was a pear tree and it was only about 6 inches high. Its little pot was finely carved and made out of a reddish stone.

The pear tree it self was grown in the shape of a heart.

To Crane's POV… 

Crane swung onto the back of a gray gelding, holding onto his things tightly. In the bag tied to the saddle was a delicate bronze rose in reddish stone pot filled with dirt, along with a few bulbs.

He kicked the gelding into a canter. The sooner he was home and back with Rosethorn the better. 

The gelding had a smooth canter, which was good, so the flowers wouldn't be crushed. He was in for a long ride.  

Rosethorn's POV… 

Rosethorn angrily applied more glue to red ribbon that she and lark were gluing to the ceiling.

Briar came in and looked around at the pinkness of the room. Then he noticed that Lark and Rosethorn were _gluing_ the ribbon to the ceiling.

"Rosethorn, you do you realize you are gluing the ribbon to the ceiling, right?" Briar asked and plopped down in a chair.

"Oh yes, don't worry it dissolves in about two days," Rosethorn said as the ribbon fell.

She pushed it up again and banged it to get it to stay.

"Boy!" she shouted.

"Briar," he responded.

"Get me a hammer!" she told him furiously pushing at the ribbon to stick to the ceiling.

"Okay," he said and wandered off.

Lark glanced at Rosethorn's ribbon as she pulled more of the red ribbon off the spool, "mine's sticking just fine."

"Your bottle is probably newer," Rosethorn replied.

Lark shrugged as Briar came back in.

"Here's your hammer Rosethorn," Briar said.

"Thank you Briar," Rosethorn said and took the hammer. 

A few minutes later…

Crane pulled the gelding to a halt in front of Discipline Cottage. A stable boy took the gelding away. He took his presents for Rosethorn and stepped in, carefully concealing the rose under a bag.

He was very surprised to see Rosethorn holding a hammer, standing on a chair, banging at a ribbon that had been partially glued to the ceiling. She was yelling as well.

"Damn glue!! Stick!! Stick!! Evil thing!!" she growled and hissed.

Crane placed the rose, still under its blanket, onto the table. There were already quite a few anniversary presents from various people on it. 

"Hello Rosethorn," Crane said, touching her on the shoulder.

She turned around and smiled when she saw him.

"Hello Crane. I was just getting this ribbon to stick to the ceiling," she said, the hammer at her side. 

She stepped down off the chair and found herself suddenly much shorter then Crane. Setting her hammer on the table she then reached up and kissed Crane tightly on the lips. He wrapped her arms around her and hugged her at the same time.

"Ok, enough with the kissing, lets round everyone up for the party," Briar said.

Rosethorn and Crane both glared at him, the continued kissing. Briar rolled his eyes and left the room, in search of the party guests. When he returned, they were still kissing. 

"Get a room," he muttered and sat down.

Rosethorn looked at Briar and then said, "Briar, we've been married for three years! You do know that married couples kiss? One of these days it'll be you kissing some pretty young lady. What'll you say then, huh?"

Briar was blushing slightly, "Er, Rosethorn… er… uh."

Lark was grinning as she pasted up some more ribbons. She had never heard Rosethorn talk to Briar about that sort of thing before. Then again, Briar _was _getting older. 

By then the girls and their teachers had come in and were sitting down at the table. Rosethorn and Crane sat down next to each other at the end of the table. And they lived happily ever after.

The End 


End file.
